Necessity of Academic Education in Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) at Postgraduate Level

Nowadays, with the rapid development of industries and technology, the risk of work- related accidents, occupational diseases and environmental pollution is increasing. Considering the importance of preventing these hazards, some universities in Iran have recently trained students in new interdisciplinary specialties such as health, safety and the environment (HSE). Some organizations are issuing specialized certificates for individuals by holding short-term workshops. Meanwhile, the acquisition of specialized HSE knowledge is almost impossible within a few hours or days. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explain the importance of HSE academic education at postgraduate level, the need to integrate the three categories of health, safety and environment and to explain the skills required by HSE specialists.

The present library review study was conducted in 2018 using tools included reviewing library texts and searching reliable online sources. For this purpose, the keywords of HSE, Health, Safety, Environment, etc. were searched in reputable databases such as Science Direct, Scopus, and Google Scholar, and also related sites such as OSHA, ACGIH, and ILO.

The results show that today, the HSE curriculum is taught in many developed and developing countries as an interdisciplinary and post-graduate course. HSE graduates must have specific skills such as human relationships, safety management knowledge and accident prevention, verbal communication skills, and writing HSE guidelines in the workplace.

The integration of health, safety and environmental management systems by HSE specialists has a vital role in the prevention of occupational diseases, industrial accidents and environmental degradation, especially in complex industries such as oil, gas, petrochemicals, nuclear, ports and shipping industries.