Health and Safety for Students: What Actually Matters

Written for parents to forward and students to skim: fire safety in shared houses, carbon monoxide, cooking without poisoning your housemates, and the five first aid skills worth having.

Updated 20 September 2026 8 min read By The Training Co.

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Quick answer

The health and safety advice that actually matters for a student moving into shared accommodation: find out where the fire exits are and never wedge a fire door open; test the smoke alarms and tell the landlord in writing if they do not work; register with a local GP straight away, before you need one; cook safely — separate boards for raw meat, fridge at 0–5°C, leftovers eaten within 48 hours; and learn CPR and how to help someone choking. A one-day first aid course covers the last one, and student houses are exactly where it gets used.

Written for parents to forward, and for students who will skim it. We have kept it to things that genuinely go wrong in student accommodation rather than a list of everything that could.

First week checklist

Do this	Why	Takes
Find the fire exits and the assembly point	You do not want to be working it out in the dark, in smoke	5 min
Test every smoke alarm	If one fails, report it in writing and keep the message	5 min
Check for a carbon monoxide alarm	If there is any gas or solid-fuel appliance, there should be one	2 min
Register with a local GP	Far harder to do while you are actually ill	20 min
Put a fridge thermometer in	Shared fridges are rarely as cold as they feel	1 min
Tell housemates about any condition	Asthma, allergies, epilepsy, diabetes — and where the inhaler or auto-injector is	5 min
Save useful numbers	Landlord, university security, NHS 111, a local taxi firm	5 min

Fire safety in shared accommodation

Shared houses and halls are where fire risk is genuinely highest — several people cooking at different times, a lot of electrical equipment, and doors that get propped open because they are heavy.

Find the escape routes on day one, before you need them in the dark.
Test the smoke alarms. If one does not work, tell the landlord or accommodation office in writing and keep the message.
Never wedge a fire door open. They exist to hold a fire back long enough for everyone to get out.
Do not cook after drinking. This is the single most common cause of fires in student housing, and a chip pan or a forgotten grill is a genuinely dangerous thing.
Never leave cooking unattended, and keep tea towels away from the hob.
Do not overload sockets or run extension leads under rugs.
Candles and incense: most accommodation bans them for good reason.
Do not store anything in escape routes — bikes in the hallway are a real problem in a fire.

Carbon monoxide

If there is a gas boiler, gas hob or any solid-fuel appliance, find out whether there is a working carbon monoxide alarm. CO has no smell, taste or colour, and the early symptoms — headache, dizziness, nausea, drowsiness — are exactly what people put down to a hangover or a cold.

The pattern to watch for: several housemates feeling unwell at the same time, and better when they go out. Get everyone into fresh air and call 999.

And the one that catches people every summer: never bring a barbecue indoors, into a tent or a room — not even after it has stopped flaming. A cooling barbecue still produces carbon monoxide. See BBQ safety.

Cooking without poisoning your housemates

Rule	The number
Fridge temperature	0–5°C — check it, do not guess
Cooking meat	Steaming hot, no pink, juices run clear
Cooling leftovers	Into the fridge within 1–2 hours
Eating leftovers	Within 48 hours
Reheating	Once only, steaming hot throughout
Raw meat storage	Sealed, bottom shelf

Wash your hands with soap and warm water before cooking and after handling raw meat, and dry them properly.
Separate boards and utensils for raw meat and for anything eaten without further cooking.
Do not wash raw chicken. It splashes bacteria around the sink. Cooking it properly is what kills them.
Use-by dates are about safety and should not be ignored, even if it smells fine. Best-before is about quality.
Leftover rice needs cooling fast, chilling, and reheating only once — it is a more common cause of food poisoning than people expect.

More: food hygiene basics. And if the shared fridge is a disaster, the office fridge guide applies almost word for word.

Getting home safely

Practical rather than preachy:

Plan how you are getting back before you go out, and keep enough money or a working app to do it.
Stay together. Agree beforehand that nobody gets left behind, and mean it.
Keep your phone charged and share your location with a friend.
Only use licensed taxis or a booked ride, and check the registration before getting in.
If you are walking, stay on lit routes, and keep one ear free rather than both in headphones.
Look after your drink, and if it tastes odd, leave it.

If a friend becomes unwell far faster than the amount they have drunk would explain, treat that as a medical situation, not a funny one. Stay with them, get help, and do not leave them to “sleep it off” alone. If they are unresponsive but breathing, put them in the recovery position; if they are not breathing normally, call 999 and start CPR.

Health admin nobody wants to do

Register with a GP in your university town in the first week. Doing it while you are ill is much harder.
Bring any repeat medication and sort out the prescription early.
If you have asthma, allergies, epilepsy or diabetes, tell your housemates what to do — where the inhaler or auto-injector is kept and when to call 999. Nobody can help if they do not know.
Vaccinations: check with your GP or university what is recommended for students.
Mental health support exists at every university and is not only for a crisis. Find out where it is before you need it.
Know when to use 111 rather than 999 — and that 999 is the right call for unresponsiveness, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding, or a suspected overdose.

The bit worth actually learning

In a student house the emergencies that happen are: someone unconscious, someone choking, a bad cut, a burn, and an asthma attack. All five are covered on a one-day course, and none of them can be looked up on a phone while they are happening.

Situation	What to do
Unresponsive but breathing	Recovery position, stay with them, call 999 if you are worried
Not breathing normally	999, start CPR, send someone for a defibrillator
Choking	Encourage coughing, then up to 5 back blows, then up to 5 abdominal thrusts
Burn	Cool under running water for 20 minutes. Not butter, not ice, not ten minutes
Bleeding	Firm direct pressure; add layers rather than removing a soaked dressing
Asthma attack	Sit up, reliever inhaler one puff every 30–60 sec up to 10, 999 if no better

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We run open courses across Greater Manchester and the North West, and we will travel to deliver group courses for societies, sports clubs, halls or student unions.

Frequently asked questions

What should students check about fire safety in a rented house?

Where the escape routes are, that the smoke alarms work, and that fire doors are never wedged open. If an alarm does not work, report it to the landlord or accommodation office in writing and keep a copy of the message.

What is the most common cause of fires in student accommodation?

Cooking, particularly cooking after drinking and leaving cooking unattended. Keeping tea towels away from the hob and not cooking when you have been drinking removes most of the risk.

Should students register with a GP at university?

Yes, in the first week. Registering while you are already ill is far harder, and it also matters for repeat prescriptions and for mental health support.

What first aid should a student know?

The recovery position for someone unresponsive but breathing, CPR and defibrillator use, what to do for choking, how to control bleeding, and cooling a burn under running water for 20 minutes. A one-day course covers all of it.

What should I do if a friend has drunk too much?

Stay with them. Do not leave them alone to sleep it off. If they are unresponsive but breathing, put them in the recovery position. If they are not breathing normally, call 999 and start CPR. If they became unwell far faster than the amount they drank would explain, treat it as a medical emergency.

Is carbon monoxide a risk in student housing?

It can be, wherever there is a gas or solid-fuel appliance. Check there is a working CO alarm. The gas has no smell, and symptoms like headache, dizziness and drowsiness are easily mistaken for a hangover — especially if several housemates feel unwell at once and better when they leave the house.

Can a landlord refuse to fix a smoke alarm?

Report it in writing and keep the record. If nothing happens, your university accommodation office or students’ union advice service can usually help, and the local council’s environmental health team deals with unsafe rented housing.

How do you put someone in the recovery position?

It is genuinely worth learning properly rather than from a description — it is the most likely thing you will need in shared accommodation. Any one-day first aid course teaches and practises it, and there are demonstrations on the NHS and Resuscitation Council UK websites.

Training for a society, club or hall

If you run a society or a venue, workplace risk assessment covers the formal version of all this. We deliver group first aid courses at universities, students’ unions and sports clubs. Call 0845 838 4643 or use the enquiry form on this page.

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