10 Safety Hacks for a Night Out At University

You can never be too safe on a night out. Here are some simple ways to stay safe when partying at university 👇

They say unplanned nights out are the best – but unplanned doesn’t mean unprepared. Whether you’ve got a heavy night of drinking ahead or you're keeping it straight-edge, we’ve put together these top 10 tips to act as your night out safety kit. 

While you don’t need to centre an evening out around safety, there are a few simple steps you can take to give you that extra bit of security in the worst-case scenario.

🚕 Share your location on Uber

Hopping in an Uber? Make sure one of your mates (who isn’t in the car with you) has the Uber app. You can share your ride information with them when the car arrives! To do this, just tap ‘security’ and click ‘share ride info’. This will send your contact the details on who the driver is, your destination, their license plate number and a live tracker to let them watch your route in real time.

📍 Set up Find My Friends

Even if you’re going out with a big group, always make sure you’ve got each other set up on an app like Find My Friends and remember to toggle ‘share my location’ before you forget. That way, your location data will always be visible to the others in your group as well as other contacts like family members in case of emergency. 

👀 Use a Nightcap 

When it comes to alcohol safety tips, it doesn’t get simpler and more straightforward than this one. Nightcap is an award-winning drink spiking prevention scrunchie that you wear around your wrist in preparation for your night out.

When you get your drink, unzip the hidden pocket in the scrunchie to find a cover that you can place over your glass. Next, pop a straw through the cover and drink up! You can buy packs of these to make sure you and your friends all have enough to last through the night. How great is that?!

⛔️ Never take a drink that you haven’t seen poured

It's pretty obvious, but an important one. When the bar is heaving and someone offers to buy you a drink, go with them or politely refuse. Advise your friends to do the same or go with them to the bar when they order drinks. Sadly, date-rape drug attacks have risen in recent years, so it’s best not to take your chances and spend that extra time waiting to be served.

🙌 Use Parachute

Parachute is an incredibly powerful personal safety app that can make all the difference in an emergency. It’s super simple to use – just make your profile and add in your contacts who you want to be notified in an emergency. You can also write a text in advance that will be sent out when you hit the emergency button on the app.

Parachute will start recording video through both front and back facing cameras discretely, showing a blacked-out screen instead of the preview. Even if your phone is taken from you, Parachute will wipe all traces of the evidence after transferring it to the cloud, so the person won’t be able to delete the data.

💸 Get cash out before your night out

If you think you’ll need cash for the evening, get some out on campus before you go out. If you forgot to take cash out, too bad – it’s better to change plans, use your card or ask a friend for some money than to wander off on a quest for an ATM. If the group decides they could all use some cash, head for an ATM in a supermarket – those random cash points on street corners are best avoided in all circumstances.

🚗 Avoid walking within arms-reach of a doorway, parked car or alleyway

Never walking alone is the bread and butter of safety on a night out. If you do find yourself alone at any point, just make sure to walk in the middle of the pavement and keep your distance from doorways, cars or dark alleys. It’s highly unlikely that someone will try to grab you, but making it that little bit harder doesn’t hurt.

🥾 Bring suitable shoes

Heels are flattering, but let’s face it – they aren’t designed for practicality. Bringing a lightweight pair of flat shoes to change into after the club is never a bad idea.

⚡️ Keep your phone charged

Always, and we mean always, charge your phone to full battery before you go out. Bring a portable charger in case you or anyone in your group forgot to charge up. If you find yourself in a threatening situation, most phones have a back-up emergency function. For the iPhone (8 and upwards), it’s pressing the power button rapidly 5 times. This will make an emergency call in situations where you can’t physically unlock your phone!

On a related note, walking with your phone out could make you a target for theft, so don’t take it out of your pocket unless you absolutely have to.

🎵 Don’t listen to music on your way home

Again, we strongly recommend staying with your group (or at least one other person) at any given time. Even if you live nearby and it’s only a short walk home, stay alert and don’t listen to music/podcasts on your way back. Your sense of hearing could save you from all kinds of danger – whether it’s being followed by someone or an oncoming car. Whatever you want to listen to, you can do it when you’re back in the safety of your home.