Safety culture among Chinese undergraduates: A survey at a university

A growing number of accidents at universities have caused public concerns in China. Improving safety culture is perceived to be an effective way of preventing accidents in many industries. Both study on safety culture among Chinese undergraduate students and research on injury prevention strategies for undergraduates are quite limited. To understand the safety culture of Chinese undergraduates, a survey using self-administrated safety culture questionnaire was conducted. 362 undergraduates at a university in Beijing responded to the questionnaire anonymously. A description on the safety culture among undergraduates at this university was provided. It was found that female undergraduates have better safety culture than male undergraduates, and safety culture of undergraduates majoring in occupational health and safety (OHS) was better than that of students in other majors. However, there was no significant difference of safety culture found among students in different academic years. The results highlighted the need to pay more attention to male students in accident prevention programs and to develop strategies to improve safety culture with the academic year increasing. In addition, safety mandatory and elective courses were recommended for all undergraduates to promote their safety culture.