Saturday October 14, 2006

Varsity set to obtain OHSAS 18001:1999 accreditation

By ROSLINA MOHAMAD KUANTAN:

University College of Engineering and Technology Malaysia (Kuktem) is set to become the first public university in the country to obtain the OHSAS 18001:1999 accreditation for its chemical engineering and natural resources faculty laboratories. The university college is expected to receive the certificate next month following an audit by NIOSH Certification Sdn Bhd conducted this month.

The Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) specification provides requirements for an occupational health and safety (OHS) management system. It also allows an organisation to control its OHS risks and improve its performance.

According to Kuktem’s Deputy Rector (Research and Innovation) Prof Dr Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz, it was important to ensure that the students conducted their activities in a safe environment. “The chemical engineering and natural resources faculty has already set a minimum safety standard in the laboratories that requires everyone to wear safety helmets and safety shoes. “This is in line with the laboratory design and its teaching factory concept,” he said in a statement released to the Press recently.


The faculty’s dean, prof Dr Rosli Mohd Yunus, said the most essential element before the students entered a laboratory to use high-risk equipment was for them to learn to heed all safety regulations. “Having a safety management system in place, will bring about the trust from parents whose children are studying under such a setting,”

Dr Rosli said. It was also equally important to have the accreditation in view of the industry’s strict emphasis on providing a safe working place for employees and for them to abide by the standard required, he added.

Kuktem is one of the 18 public universities in the country and its first intake of students was in June 2002. It now has about 4,000 students and operates from its temporary campus in Gambang.