University safety culture : a work-in-progress?

Safety management systems in Australian higher education organisations are under-researched. Limited workplace safety information can be found in the various reports on university human resources benchmarking programs, and typically they show only descriptive statistics. With the commencement of new consultation-focused regulations applying to many universities in Australia, the need to have a better understanding of the operation of organisational safety management systems has more prominence. This paper presents results from a 'safety culture' survey completed by staff in a business-related faculty (53 respondents, 15 per cent response rate) from three Australian universities. Based on analysis of the survey data, the safety culture in these three universities can aptly be described as a work-in-progress.