New students have the opportunity to take the new version of this degree with 3 options: Occupational Safety Bachelor of Science Degree (43-873) with the option for Environmental, Safety, or Health Science Management concentration.
Earn a degree in this high-demand field with excellent employment and salary opportunities. The safety profession focuses on keeping people safe while also preventing harm to property and the environment. Gain hands-on experience with current laboratory and field technology, paid internships, participation in premier conferences, and applied projects.
All Occupational Safety majors are awarded the Graduate Safety Practitioner (GSP) designation upon application at graduation. A GSP is an alternate path to the professional certification of Certified Safety Professional (CSP). Only students who graduate from a designated Qualified Academic Program through the Board of Certified Safety Professionals are eligible for the GSP designation, making it highly respected.
UCM and the Safety Sciences programs have excellent placement rates. Our students are extremely competitive in the job market and have earned excellent starting salaries.
See our graduate success & salary statistics
The primary focus for the safety profession is prevention of harm to people, property, and the environment. Safety professionals apply principles drawn from such disciplines as engineering, education, psychology, physiology, enforcement, hygiene, health, physics, and management. They use appropriate methods and techniques of loss prevention and loss control. "Safety sciences" is a twenty-first century term for everything that goes into the prevention of accidents, illnesses, fires, explosions, and other events which harm people, property, and the environment. (Career Guide to the Safety Profession, 3rd Edition.) Read more about the safety profession from the American Society of Safety Engineers.
Our graduates are employed in a variety of settings that include, but are not limited to, the following:
For more details on where safety professionals work, what they do, and the employment outlook, see the Career Guide to the Safety Profession.
At the time of graduation, students with a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Safety will be able to:
1. Anticipate, recognize, and evaluate hazards for the development of control strategies through the application of math, science, business, and risk management concepts.
2. Formulate, design, implement, and evaluate safety, health, and/or environmental programs.
3. Communicate professionally both verbally and in writing as an individual and as a contributing member of a multidisciplinary team.
4. Identify and interpret applicable standards, regulations, and codes in a global society.
5. Conduct an accident investigation including root cause analysis and development of a corrective action plan.
6. Demonstrate the ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern scientific and technical tools necessary for professional practice of the fundamental aspects of safety, health, and environmental sciences (SH&E).
7. Design and conduct experiments and formulate an analysis and interpretation of associated qualitative, semi-quantitative, and/or quantitative data.
8. Apply SH&E knowledge and principles in an internship, cooperative, or supervised experience.
9. Understand and communicate professional and ethical codes.
10. Develop the business case and demonstrate the value of SH&E interventions
11. Develop SH&E training utilizing appropriate adult learning theories and techniques to meet diversity in occupational settings.
12. Articulate the need to maintain technical professional competency on contemporary issues in order to understand the impact of SH&E solutions in a global and societal context.
Graduates with a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Safety will be prepared to attain the following objectives:
ANSAC/ABET accredited
Dr. Leigh Ann Blunt,
CSP, Department Chair
HUM 225
Tel: 660-543-4963