Educators from 15 of the 17 universities offering OHS programs and representatives from 3 of the state government regulators met at our Sydney International Campus recently for a national forum, as part of the CQUniversity-led ALTC grant 'Safeguarding Australians'.

Participants have agreed to a 'Sydney Declaration' Communiqué* to lobby stakeholders for reform, with our Associate Professor in Human Factors & Systems Safety, Dr Yvonne Toft as key spokesperson.  

The press release has already been presented to some of the state government regulators, along with the following news story as an example of why the emerging Academy calls for urgent attention.

* Communiqué - The Sydney Declaration

Currently, 5% of Australian GDP is consumed annually by the cost of workplace incidents, injuries, disease and fatalities nationwide.

In this context, the emerging Academy of University OHS Education and Research met in Sydney this month (April) to contribute to the ALTC project Safe Guarding Australians.

At the forum 15 of the 17 universities that currently deliver OHS tertiary programs across Australia were represented.

During the forum, key issues identified included the need to:

•  articulate the core body of OHS knowledge for accreditation of courses,
•  enhance the role and profile of OHS university education & research,
•  enhance the quality and sustainability of OHS education, and
•  increase the number of OHS research higher degree scholarships.

The Academy is strongly committed to taking action on these matters and calls on the community, industry and OHS regulators to work with us.