Abstract
Considerable research efforts abound on safety issues during construction phase of built
facilities, but very low attention is paid to safety during operation phase; instead security
occupies top priority. Responding to factors such as technological and increase in student’s
population, many higher institutions globally are expanding their built facilities in terms of
quantity, size and sophistication. There are many situations that infringe on the safety of the
end-users; they include fire, natural and man-made disasters. The simplest approach to test
the emergency preparedness of the end-user of the facilities as well as the adequacies of
critical components of the built facilities is to simulate emergency through evacuation drill.
Conducting evacuation drill in Higher Education institution is complex due to the
composition of its constituency, multiple activities, time constraints and the human
dynamics: some view evacuation drill as a wasteful exercise. The case study method of
qualitative research is adopted; the data are collected through semi-structured questionnaire
complemented with interview, observation and participation. The findings include evidence
of the display of safety awareness documents, sensitization lectures and running mini
evacuation drills in the different segment of the institution. Although the response rate to
evacuation drill is low at the moment, with more commitments and advocacy it is possible to
progress towards benchmarking the exercise with regulatory standards.