European Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 33, Nos.

56, OctoberDecember 2008, 499510

The attitude of civil engineering students towards health and safety risk management: a case study
A.K. Petersena *, J.H. Reynoldsb and L.W.T. Ngb
a Department of Civil Engineering, University b Department of Civil Engineering,

of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies; University of Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK

(Received 6 August 2008 ) The highest rate of accidents and injuries in British industries has been reported by the construction industry during the past decade. Since then stakeholders have recognised that a possible solution would be to inculcate a good attitude towards health and safety risk management in undergraduate civil engineering students and construction professionals. Consequently, the four accreditation bodies that accredit construction degrees have improved coverage of health and safety risk management. The key issue has now shifted to ensure that Higher Education Centres deliver these requirements. This paper demonstrates innovative assessment methods that have been used to inculcate a safety conscious attitude into undergraduate civil engineering students, and to improve their knowledge of health and safety risk management. Surveys were administered to the students before and after they were subjected to innovative assessment techniques over two semesters in the construction management units. The analyses of the results of the surveys are provided to demonstrate the degree of improvement in the attitude of the students towards, and their knowledge of, health and safety risk management. Keywords: education and training; health and safety risk management; statistical analysis

Introduction This paper discusses: (1) the background of construction health and safety risk management in the UK; (2) the current situation in the undergraduate teaching provision of health and safety risk management in construction disciplines in the UK; and (3) the attitudes of undergraduate civil engineering students at the University of Portsmouth towards, and their knowledge of, health and safety risk management in construction before and after being subjected to the assessment techniques known as: zero tolerance assessment and 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web (Reynolds et al. 2004). Previous research by the principal authors concentrated on the student perception of the appropriateness of these assessment methods in inculcating risk awareness within the student cohort.
*Corresponding author. Email: andrew.petersen@sta.uwi.edu

ISSN 0304-3797 print/ISSN 1469-5898 online 2008 SEFI DOI: 10.1080/03043790802564053 http://www.informaworld.com

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This paper concentrates on the development of student knowledge of and attitude towards health and safety risk management. Although this paper concentrates on health and safety risk management in the UK construction industry, the transferable skills are relevant on a global basis to all engineering professions. Indeed this paper echoes the goals of organisations such as European Network Education and Training in Occupational Safety and Health (ENETOSH) which states on its website:
The overall goal of ENETOSH is to nd and to promote ways of improving the quality of education and training by intensifying and systematising the exchange of knowledge and experience regarding mainstreaming OSH into education and training in Europe (ENETOSH 2008).

The high incidence of workplace accidents and occupational diseases is a major concern for social security schemes around the world. It is estimated that more than two million people die from work-related illness or accidents each year. To address these challenges and to promote prevention, the International Social Security Association (ISSA) not only has a Technical Commission focused on the subject of insurance against employment accidents and occupational diseases, but hosts a unique network of 11 International Prevention Sections under the leadership of the Special Commission on Prevention (ISSA 2008). The authors are aware of the need for a European and global context since for 70% of their student audience, English is not their mother tongue.

Health and safety risk management in the UK construction industry Over the last decade the highest rate of accidents and injuries in British Industries has been reported by the construction industry (HSE 2007). Consequently the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) conducted blitz inspections in an attempt to enforce health and safety legislation and thus improve construction site safety (Marsh et al. 1995). However, after 2000 site inspections it was observed that one-third of the site agents and supervisors had inadequate knowledge of and a poor attitude towards basic health and safety requirements (Marsh et al. 1995). The blitz inspections were not successful in reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries (Marsh et al. 1995) but simply highlighted the lack of knowledge of and the poor attitudes towards health and safety risk management. The risk of fatality in the construction industry has decreased from approximately 4.5 times higher (in 199293) to approximately three times higher (in 200607) than the risk of fatality that is associated with all British industries (Figure 1) (HSE 2007). Also the rate of major injuries and lost time injuries of more than three days has decreased over the last decade as shown in Table 1 (HSE 2006). Figure 1 and Table 1 both display a decrease in fatalities and injuries over the past decade. Despite HSE efforts in enforcing health and safety legislation, it is prominent that the accident rate in the construction industry is still too high when compared with the accident rate in all British industries. Crocker (1995) suggested that apart from the human cost of suffering an accident, the economic effect can be devastating. The combined estimate of the number of days lost (full-day equivalent) due to workplace injury and work-related ill-health attributed to current or most recent contracts in the UK construction industry was 3.2 million pounds (HSE 2006). The European Union (EU) had embarked on a series of directives in the eld of Health and Safety with the aim of reducing deaths and injuries on construction sites by changing the processes of construction, design and management. The EU Temporary and Mobile Construction Sites Directive was based on the principle that everyone involved in a construction project must be committed to the task of reducing accidents and ill-health. In response to this directive, which was binding to all EU member countries, the UK introduced the Construction Design and Management

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Figure 1. 2007).

UK construction industry fatality rates per 100,000 workers compared with other industries 19922006 (HSE

Table 1.

UK construction industry accident rates 19962006 per 100,000 workers (HSE 2006). 199697 199798 199899 19992000 200001 200102 200203 200304 200405 200506

Fatal Major Over 3 days

5.6 403.0 1078.6

4.6 382.3 996.3

3.8 402.7 863.4

4.7 395.9 917.0

5.9 380.9 829.2

4.4 356.1 799.1

3.8 354.9 788.0

3.6 327.7 680.0

3.5 326.9 654.1

3.0 310.2 632.1

(CDM) Regulations 1994 that were passed into law on 19 December 1994, implemented from 31 March 1995. Beal (2007) investigated the inuence of these CDM Regulations and concluded that the regulations had failed to achieve the intended outcome. He suggested that the fault was associated with design professionals for failing to make them work. Beal also suggested that the designers were the main inuence on construction site safety and temporary works design. This suggests that there is a problem with the attitude and/or awareness of the design consultants. A recent study has highlighted companies or organisations that have demonstrated a negative attitude towards health and safety risk management (Human Engineering 2005, p. 3). Hughes and Ferrett (2005, pp. 4763) have highlighted the following common reasons that result in a poor culture of health and safety risk management: (1) lack of resources; (2) lack of compliance; (3) poor selection procedures; (4) poor levels of communication; and (5) poor risk management. HSE (2006) recommended that for an effective, risk-free construction environment, safety, and site management must include the interaction of the: (1) individual (personalities, skills, and attitudes); (2) job (workload, skill requirements, and resources); and (3) organisational culture (leadership).

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Undergraduate teaching of health and safety risk management in the UK In 2000, the British Government indicated that the number of deaths and injuries must be reduced in the construction industry (DETR 2000). The British Government (DETR 2000) and Carpenter et al. (2004, p. 36) both suggested that all construction professionals such as engineers, architects, and surveyors should have an adequate education in health and safety risk management, in addition to their academic studies, for an improvement in the health and safety risk management of the construction industry. Consequently, it became vitally important for Higher Education Centres to respond to the British Government and the challenge of the British construction industry by contributing to and providing support for education in health and safety risk management. However it was reported in 2001 by Carpenter et al. (2001) that the current construction undergraduates had a poor level of knowledge of and a poor attitude towards health and safety risk management in construction. Carpenter et al. (2001) also expressed concern with respect to the delivery of health and safety risk management in academia. Carpenter et al. (2001, pp. 9, 12) discovered that the requirements for academic coverage of health and safety risk management in construction-related degrees varied considerably among the following four accreditation bodies that were responsible for setting the requirements for all construction-related degree courses. These four accreditation bodies include the: (1) (2) (3) (4) Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB); Joint Board of Moderators (JBM); Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)/Architects Registration Board (ARB); and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Carpenter et al. (2001, pp. 10, 14, 30) concluded that accreditation requirements of health and safety risk management were neither coherent nor consistent. They suggested that it was unreasonable for academia to solely respond to the challenge of improving the performance of health and safety risk management in the construction industry and that increased support and guidance from accreditation bodies and industry were necessary. Carpenter et al. (2004) reported that the requirements of the accreditation bodies had improved signicantly in both approach and detail and that academia had developed good links with industry. Unfortunately, they also discovered that the concept of health and safety risk management had not been sufciently accepted or integrated into courses because of a lack of support from the heads of construction departments and a lack of cohesion among academic staff. Carpenter et al. (2004, p. 15) reported that the key issue had shifted from the need for accreditation bodies to specify requirements of health and safety risk management to enabling and ensuring that the higher education centres delivered these requirements. Carpenter et al. (2004, p. 33) recommended that accreditation bodies should request higher education centres ensure that the external examiner is sufciently briefed to assess course content and health and safety risk management. The research team (Carpenter et al. 2001, p. 36; 2004, p. 35) also recommended that heads of departments should ensure that staff members are signedup to the principle of health and safety risk management by providing adequate support and training to staff and also to vacation and year-out placement students. They also recommended (Carpenter et al. 2001, p. 34; 2004, pp. 67, 34) that academia should consider launching health and safety risk management awareness days to encourage students to integrate health and safety risk management in their lives. It was suggested by Carpenter et al. (2001, p. 36) that academia should work with industryled interest groups such as the Construction Industry Council (CIC), the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), and the Engineering Council (EC) all of whom provide literature of health and safety risk management at no charge. Carpenter et al. (2004, p. 10) demonstrated how the construction confederation had worked with three universities (University of Loughborough,

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University College London, and University of Liverpool John Moores) to conduct testing on health and safety risk management by using a mobile test centre (part of the Construction Skill Certication Scheme (CSCS)). The purpose of the test was to give undergraduates an opportunity to obtain a CSCS trainee card that was necessary for them to work on construction sites during work placement and vacation periods. Finally, it was suggested by Carpenter et al. (2001, 2004) that high-level government bodies such as DETR, funding agencies, and HSE should use their inuence to: (1) publish more case study materials on health and safety risk management via their internet websites as part of the construction excellence programme (2004, p. 33); (2) request inclusion of requisite health and safety risk management matters with funded courses as a condition to receipt of funding (2001, p. 34); and (3) implement action point 34 of the Revitalising Health and Safety Strategy Statement (2001, p. 34) to encourage a positive change of the current health and safety risk management matters within the higher education system.

Health and safety risk management at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Portsmouth The University of Portsmouth has developed innovative techniques known as zero tolerance assessment and 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web to directly address the concerns of integrating risk management into the teaching, learning, and assessment of undergraduate civil engineering students. The Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Portsmouth has approximately 10 years of experience in implementing the zero tolerance assessment strategy and the 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web in two construction management units: (1) construction practice (year/level 1, semester 2), and (2) construction management (year/level 2, semester 1). The zero tolerance assessment strategy is based on pass/fail criteria similar to professional practice. In this assessment strategy, students submit coursework that are passed only if the coursework is of a high technical level and does not compromise health and safety risk issues. Coursework that is not passed is returned to the student for resubmission until the coursework matches the pass criteria (Reynolds et al. 2004). First-year undergraduate students at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Portsmouth are required to individually produce drawings for construction site activities (for the construction practice unit). One of these drawings includes the major elements of a cofferdam that provides temporary support for deep excavations as shown in Figure 2. The zero tolerance assessment strategy is used to assess these drawings. Consequently, the drawings are not signed or accepted until the designs are correct and safe. The students mark is derived from the time taken to produce a safe drawing that ensures the implementation of adequate safety procedures and reduced risks (Reynolds et al. 2004). Second year undergraduate civil engineering students at the University of Portsmouth are instructed on safety, the environment, cost, time, risk identication and risk mitigation. The students are then required to produce a pre-tender document/coursework (for the construction management unit) that is based on a sub-contractor role and includes resource allocation, method statements, risk evaluation, and risk mitigation. A schematic of this coursework is shown in Figure 3.

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Figure 2. Illustration of the zero tolerance assessment strategy on a cofferdam drawing. Source: Reynolds et al. (2004).

The zero tolerance assessment strategy is also used for the assessment of these pre-tender documents/coursework, and similar to the assessment of the drawings, the pre-tender coursework is not passed until it is of a high technical level and health and safety risk issues are not compromised (Reynolds et al. 2004). In the evaluation of zero tolerance assessment strategy, Reynolds et al. (2004) concluded that: the students may have become more familiar with concepts of risk management since the zero tolerance assessment strategy is based on professional practice;

Figure 3. Schematic of second-year pre-tender coursework. Source: Reynolds et al. (2004).

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the acceptance of a safety culture by the student cohort was necessary for the successful implementation of the zero tolerance assessment strategy; and with appropriate academic support, the students accepted the zero tolerance assessment strategy even though it may have involved additional work. The implementation of 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web at the University of Portsmouth employs a World Wide Web bulletin board called Projects Talk and mimics the construction design ofce process where junior engineers receive feedback and assistance from company documentation, peers and senior engineers. At the University of Portsmouth, the fourth-year master degree civil engineering students are appointed to mentor the second year undergraduate civil engineering students in their coursework submissions. Both the fourth- and second-year students post questions to Projects Talk to obtain information from the academic staff on issues such as health and safety risk management. The web-based bulletin board facilitates 360 degree feedback to the students (feedback from peers, mentors, and academic staff) and allows students and staff to work at their own time, pace, and place (Reynolds et al. 2004). These innovative techniques of zero tolerance assessment and 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web that are used in the construction management units at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Portsmouth, have been commended by the JBM and meet the requirements for the academic coverage of health and safety risk management. This project, however, was instigated to measure the change in the attitude of the students and their knowledge of health and safety risk management after they have completed the compulsory construction management units to determine whether the students have: (1) a positive attitude towards health and safety risk management and (2) an increased knowledge of health and safety risk management. Consequently, a survey was developed to measure this change in the attitude of the students towards and their knowledge of health and safety risk management.

Survey development and administration The surveys that were developed for this study were the results of a nal-year undergraduate project at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Portsmouth. The target population for this study was the rst- and second-year undergraduate students at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Portsmouth, who were registered for the two compulsory construction management units: (1) construction practice (year/level 1, semester 2) and (2) construction management (year/level 2, semester 1). The zero tolerance assessment strategy and 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web are both implemented in these construction management units as mentioned previously. The surveys were administered in the 200607 academic year during which a total of 92 students were registered for the year/level 1 construction practice unit and a total of 76 students were registered for the year/level 2 construction management unit. The focus of the survey that was administered to the rst-year students (at the beginning of the semester) was to evaluate their attitude towards and their knowledge of health and safety risk management before assessing them using the zero tolerance assessment strategy in the construction practice unit. The survey that was administered to the second-year students (at the end of the semester) was based on the survey that was administered to the rst-year students but with

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the aim of determining the changes in their attitude towards and knowledge of health and safety risk management after educating them for two semesters. Additionally, questions were designed in the survey that was administered to the second-year students to investigate the effectiveness of the delivery of zero tolerance assessment and 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web. The following ve-point Likert scale was developed for each question in both surveys: 1 = very poor; 2 = poor; 3 = normal; 4 = good; 5 = very good. The surveys were set as part of the coursework for both the construction practice and construction management units to ensure that they were completed by the students. The surveys were also administered on the internet. A total of 50 rst-year undergraduate civil engineering students completed their survey in the correct format and at the requested time. The percentage of these respondents corresponds to 54% of the target student population. A total of 62 second-year undergraduate students completed their survey in the correct format and at the time requested. The second-year student respondents correspond to 82% of the target student population. The lower response rate of 54% from the rst-year students was a clear indication that increased guidance was required for students who were interacting with internet support for assessment, teaching, and learning. The results from the analysis of the administered surveys are described in the next section.

Results and discussion Both the rst- and second-year undergraduate civil engineering students were asked to rate their attitude towards and their knowledge of health and safety risk management using the ve-point scale. Table 2 illustrates the percentages of year one and year two students with the corresponding self-rating of their attitude towards and knowledge of health and safety risk management. The results in Table 2 indicate that 94% of year one students and 98% of year two students rated their attitudes towards health and safety risk management as average or better. Additionally, a higher percentage of year two students than year one students rated their attitudes towards health and safety risk management as good and very good. These statistics indicate that there was a positive change in the attitude of year two students towards health and safety risk management after educating them in the compulsory construction management units that implemented zero tolerance assessment and 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web. The results in Table 2 indicate that 68% of the rst-year student and 100% of the secondyear students rated their knowledge of health and safety risk management as average or better. The high rating of year one students was unexpected since they had not been instructed on health and safety risk management and safety legislation. This may be explained by the students interpreting their experience of working within a safety conscious culture at the University of Portsmouth as knowledge of health and safety risk management. However, year two students have been instructed in health and safety risk management and the most relevant safety legislation in the compulsory construction management units. The 100%
Table 2. Question How do you rate your attitude towards health and safety risk management How do you rate your knowledge of health and safety risk management Self-rating of the students attitudes towards and knowledge of health and safety risk management. Year 1 2 1 2 Very poor (%) 0 0 10 0 Poor (%) 6 2 22 0 Average (%) 36 11 28 24 Good (%) 32 50 34 66 Very good (%) 26 37 6 20

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rating of average, good, and very good by the second-year students is a clear indication that there was an improvement in the knowledge of these students in health and safety risk management after educating them in the units that implemented zero tolerance assessment and 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web. Learning outcomes of the units are demonstrated by the students attitude to and knowledge of health and safety risk management; on the other hand, feedback in terms of the course delivery is necessary to allow for future improvements. Both the rst- and the second-year students were asked to rate their attendance to lectures and tutorials in their surveys. These questions were developed to identify which learning vehicles the students employed the most. The results in Table 3 show that a total of 98% of year one and 100% of year two students rated their attendance to lectures as average, good, and very good. However, the 2% difference between the two target student populations is too small to relate to a change in the attitude of the students towards and their knowledge of health and safety risk management. From the results shown in Table 3, a total of 84% of the rst-year student and 100% of the second-year students rated their attendance to tutorials as average, good, and very good. The tutorial sessions for the two compulsory construction management units at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Portsmouth, have been designed to fully explore the safety legislation that are introduced in lecture sessions. Consequently, the increased attendance of the second-year students can possibly be related to a positive change in attitude of the students towards and their knowledge of health and safety risk management. The Department of Civil Engineering at University of Portsmouth allocated 64 h for year two students to complete their pre-tender coursework. As part of this study, year two students were asked the time taken to successfully complete their coursework. The rationale of using these data in the study was to relate the time taken to complete the coursework to the attitude of the students towards health and safety risk management. The pie chart in Figure 4 represents the time taken for year two students to complete their pre-tender coursework. The pie chart in Figure 4 indicates that 90% of the target population spent 50100 h on their pre-tender coursework. The time spent by the students on their project exceeds the time allocated by
Table 3. Question How do you rate your attendance at lectures How do you rate your attendance at tutorials Student rating of their attendance at lectures and tutorials. Year 1 2 1 2 Very poor (%) 0 0 14 0 Poor (%) 2 0 2 0 Average (%) 6 10 16 19 Good (%) 42 34 26 36 Very good (%) 50 56 42 45

Figure 4. Time taken by year two students to complete the pre-tender coursework.

508 Table 4. Question How do you rate the usefulness of

A.K. Petersen et al. Student rating of the usefulness and their use of the online resources and bulletin board. Instrument Lectures Tutorials Checklists Projects Talk Checklists Projects Talk Very poor (%) 0 0 0 2 0 0 Poor (%) 6 0 2 3 2 8 Average (%) 16 19 11 16 9 35 Good (%) 44 47 42 26 45 34 Very good (%) 34 34 45 53 44 23

How do you rate your use of

Table 5.

Student rating of the effectiveness of the feedback mechanisms. Very poor (%) 0 15 3 2 Poor (%) 6 27 5 0 Average (%) 37 35 6 16 Good (%) 32 8 39 44 Very good (%) 24 15 47 39

Question How do you rate the effectiveness of the feedback mechanisms

Instrument Marking criteria Advice from masters students Advice from team-mates Advice from lectures

the University of Portsmouth. This is a clear indication that the students are motivated to complete their coursework and their attitude is positive towards health and safety risk management. The effectiveness of junior staff in any organisation is dependent on the quality of support and feedback that they receive from company documentation (procedures/checklists), peers, and senior staff. Consequently, survey questions were designed to determine the quality of delivery and support of the teaching and learning resources in year two construction management unit. The results of these questions are displayed in Table 4. The results in Table 4 indicate that more than 90% of year two students found the quality of the web/checklists and the bulletin board Projects Talk to be average, good, and very good. Additionally, the students were asked to rate the effectiveness of the feedback mechanisms in the construction management unit. The results of this survey question are shown in Table 5. The results in Table 5 indicate that more than 90% of year two students rate the advice from lectures and team-mates as the most effective feedback mechanism. The results also indicate that a signicantly smaller percentage of 40% of the students rated the advice from the masters students as average, good, and very good. The feedback mechanisms in the construction management unit were therefore more successful in imitating the construction design ofce process at a peer support level.

Limitations of the survey The limitations of the research are that student responses could be more macho than reality. Also the Hawthorne effect (peoples behaviour and performance change following any new or increased attention, Wikipedia, n.d.) cannot be ignored. However, the methodology employed is the same as that used for the National Student Survey (Guardian Unlimited 2007). In the National Student Survey, students were asked to complete a questionnaire giving qualitative judgements on a range of issues. The authors are not surprised that the ndings of this research are consistent with the ndings of the National Student Survey where the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Portsmouth was voted the top Civil Engineering Department in the UK (Guardian Unlimited 2007).

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Conclusions The health and safety risk management record in the construction industry is still poor due to poor attitudes of construction professionals towards and their lack of knowledge of health and safety risk management. Although the rate of accidents has improved over the last few years, the rate of accidents in the construction industry is still higher than all other industries (HSE 2007). Recently, the requirements for the coverage of health and safety risk management in undergraduate construction degrees were improved by the four accreditation bodies that are responsible for accrediting undergraduate construction degrees and now the key issue has shifted to ensure higher education centres deliver these requirements. The University of Portsmouth has created a learning and assessment environment that has been shown to develop an improved level of knowledge and attitude towards health and safety risk management in the students. The learning environment created has been shown to satisfy the individual, job and organisational factors necessary to affect a change in workplace behaviour (HSE 2006). The assessment of year two and year two construction units at the University of Portsmouth was designed to embed a positive health and safety risk management culture within the student cohort. Even though these units are demanding on student time and effort due to the methods of assessment, the students have responded by improved attendance at lectures and tutorials. Previous research at the University of Portsmouth has shown that the students understand and agree with the philosophy of zero tolerance assessment even though it involves additional work (Reynolds et al. 2004). The attitudes of students towards health and safety risk management improved during attendance at these units.A total of 87% of year two students claimed to have a goodor very good attitude towards health and safety risk management. Similarly the students perceived knowledge of health and safety risk management improved since 76% of year two students claimed to have a good or very good understanding of health and safety risk management. Second-year students at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Portsmouth indicated that the advice given by their team-mates was better than the advice given by masters students even though they would be expected to have much more experience and knowledge than year two students. This result highlights the difculties in developing leadership qualities. The management/motivation of the human resource is extremely important and more effort should be made in this educational and training scenario. Zero tolerance assessment and 360 degree feedback via the World Wide Web assessment methods have proven to improve the attitude of students towards and their knowledge of health and safety risk management. These assessment methods are also suitable for other engineering courses and could be applied in other European universities.

References
Beal, A.N., 2007. CDM regulations: 12 years of pain but little gain. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 160(2), 8288. Carpenter, J., Williams, P., and Smith, N.C., 2001. Identication and management of risk in undergraduate construction courses. Norwich: Health and Safety Executive, Report No. 392/2001. Carpenter, J., Williams, P., and Smith, N.C., 2004. Identication and management of risk in undergraduate construction courses. Norwich: Health and Safety Executive, Report No. 275/2004. Crocker. M., 1995. The economics of safety management. London: Travers Morgan Ltd. DETR (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions), 2000. Revitalising health and safety strategy statement. London: DETR. ENETOSH, 2008. The European Network Education and Training in Occupational Safety and Health. Available from: http://www.enetosh.net/webcom/show_article.php/_c-29/_lkm-9/i.html [Accessed 5 August 2008]. Guardian Unlimited, 2007. National student survey; highest scoring courses 2006. Available from: http://education. guardian.co.uk/students/table/01857551,00.html [Accessed 8 August 2007].

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Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 2006. Work-related injuries and ill health in construction. http://www.hse.gov.uk/ statistics/industry/construction.htm [Accessed 13 November 2006]. Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 2007. Statistics of fatal injuries 2006/07. UK: Health and Safety Executive. Hughes, P. and Ferrett, E., 2005. Introduction to health and safety in construction. Surrey: Elsevier. Human Engineering, 2005. A review of safety culture and safety climate literature for the development of the safety culture inspection toolkit. UK: Health and Safety Executive, Report No. 367. ISSA, 2008. The International Social Security Association. Available from: http://www.issa.int/aiss/AboutISSA/Mission [Accessed 5 August 2008]. Marsh, T.W., et al., 1995. Improving safety behaviour using goal setting and feedback. UK: MCB University Press Limited. Reynolds, J.H., Petersen, A.K., and Tutesigensi, A., 2004. Case study: a zero tolerance assessment strategy for incorporating risk assessment into undergraduate construction related courses. UK: ITSN Engineering, Report No. 03-2004 [Electronic version]. Wikipedia, N.D. Hawthorne effect.Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect/ [Accessed 22 March 2007].

About the authors Andrew Petersen is now a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering, at the University of the West Indies having previously been along with John Reynolds a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering, at the University of Portsmouth UK. Andrew and John have together introduced a number of new assessment strategies for assessing students learning in the subject of Health and Safety Risk Management. Tommy Ng as an undergraduate student chose as the subject of his nal year project to investigate the attitude of his peers towards Health and Safety Risk Management before and after being subject to these innovative assessment and learning methods.