Incidents and accidents

Risk observation

A risk observation is an observation concerning a risk that could lead to an incident, study-related health issues, illness or accident. It might, for example, be you noticing a door that should be locked is open, which might mean that unauthorised people can enter the premises.

Incidents

An incident is an event that could have led to an accident or a physical and/or psychological injury, but instead ended well.

For example, a heavy object might fall off a shelf without hitting anyone, or someone might slip on a wet floor without falling down. You may also experience offensive or condescending comments during your studies that make you or others feel uncomfortable. 

Accidents or study-related health issues

An accident – or occupational injury – is when an incident results in physical or psychological injury. For example, a heavy object could fall from a shelf and hit someone, injuring them. Or someone could slip on a wet floor and fall, injuring themselves.

Accidents also includes study-related health issues or occupational illness, i.e health issues or illness that has arisen as a result of physical and/or psychological conditions in your work environment. For example, when offensive or condescending comments lead to someone feeling so unwell that they cannot continue their studies. It could be that you are finding your workload so heavy that you are unable to take part in all elements, which makes you feel stressed, leading to sleeping problems and depression.

Commuting accidents (an accident on the way to or from the University) are also included in the definition of accident.

If you suffer a study-related health issue or occupational illness or are involved in an incident or accident, including while travelling to and from the University, you must inform your head of department or the programme/course director. You do this by using the IA system below..

Log in to the IA system using your regular student ID and password. 

• Make a report in the IA system

All reports must be entered into the University’s system for registering official documents. This means that anyone can request the report, based on the principle of public access to official documents. However, if this happens, a confidentiality assessment will always be made. Remember not to include names or other personal details in the free text field. For example, write ’lecturer’ instead of the lecturer’s name, or ’student’ instead of the student’s name.

You are advised to contact your student health and safety representative when making a report in the IA system. You can then give them first-hand information about the issue and they can help you with the form if you need it.

Student health and safety representatives

If you are injured or suffer from a serious health issue due to your studies, the University is responsible for reporting it to the Swedish Work Environment Authority and Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency) using their electronic services. You might also be able to make a claim for compensation through the personal injury insurance provided by Kammarkollegiet (the Financial and Administrative Services Agency).

You can read more about personal accident insurance as it applies to you below.

If you wish to remain anonymous

If you do not wish to submit your name in the report, it is possible to submit it anonymously. In that case, you can ask your student health and safety representative to register it in the IA system on your behalf. They will write in the report that they are doing so as a student health and safety representative on behalf of a student who wishes to remain anonymous.

Please note: It is more difficult to investigate and take action on an incident that is reported anonymously. It is University policy that you are never to suffer any form of retaliation for making a report.

If you are injured in an accident or commuting accident related to your studies, you may be entitled to compensation from the Financial and Administrative Services Agency’s (Kammarkollegiet’s) personal injury insurance. You should see a doctor to verify the injury. This will also make it easier to claim compensation. Keep all certificates and receipts relating to the injury.

The personal injury insurance covers:

• Students and doctoral students according to Chapter 1, Section 4 of the Higher Education Ordinance.
• In Sweden. It applies during school hours* and during direct travel between the home and the place where school hours are spent. If you go abroad in connection with your studies, you must take out a separate add-on insurance.
• If you are injured in an accident or contract an illness.
• If you have an accident while studying remotely, if the accident is directly related to your studies.

The insurance is taken out via Kammarkollegiet.

How to make a claim

You can find the ’University students in Sweden Claim form’ on Kammarkollegiet’s website. Fill it in, sign it and send it to Registraturen, Box 117, 221 00 Lund.

Download the ’University students in Sweden Claim form’ – kammarkollegiet.se

You can read more about personal injury insurance and what applies to you as a student on the Kammarkollegiet website:

Insurance for university students in Sweden – kammarkollegiet.se

*School hours are defined as an activity organised by Lund University that your programme/course specifies as an element of your education. Please note that personal injury insurance does not apply if the activity is organised by a party other than Lund University – such as a student union or student nation – organises the activity. In these cases, you must have private home insurance/accident insurance.

All reports of study-related health issues, incidents and accidents must be followed up by your head of department or programme manager together with your student health and safety representative. The purpose of the follow-up is to investigate what happened and what can be done to prevent a similar event from happening in the future. Your faculty’s local health and safety committee will also follow up the case (without revealing your identity).