Fewer than 2% of Dundee firefighter call-outs to student halls of residence in the past 20 months were to actual fires.
Officers from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service attended 393 incidents at student halls of residence in the city between September 2015 to May 2017.
There were four reported cases of a fire requiring to be extinguished in that time, 11 incidents which required specialist service and 378 false alarms.
Both September 2015 and 2016 — when the universities’ undergraduate semesters began — saw the greatest number of fire service call-outs, with 44 and 41 respectively across the city.
The fire service says many false alarms are caused by carelessness or negligence and are easily avoidable.
It also reminds students making hoax calls or “nuisance” calls they are liable for a fine and in some cases imprisonment.
Dundee University has four halls of residence — Belmont, Heathfield, Seabraes and West Park – with varied housing types in each.
Abertay University, which has three halls — Victoria Chambers, Meadowside Halls and Lyon Street — had 12 false alarm activations between September 2015 and April 2017, and never more than two in one month.
The university also offers students the chance to take up accommodation at privately-run Parker House, which has not had a single call-out in three years.
A spokesman for Abertay said: “We carry out termly evacuations in all residences, provide fire safety guidance as part of the residences’ online induction and provide electronic and hard copies of fire safety guidance and instructions in every bedroom and shared space in halls.”
Grant Nicoll, station manager for Dundee West, said: “Firefighters work extremely hard to engage with students during freshers’ week and promote safety messages.”
