UQ awarded for quality, safety and environmental management

UQ has become the first Australian university to gain accreditation by National Certification Services International (NCSI) in the areas of quality, safety and environmental management.

The quality and safety areas of the accreditation were conducted on the Property and Facilities Division whereas the environmental certification covered the whole St Lucia campus.

UQ Property and Facilities Administration Manager Gary Portley said the external audit was conducted by the NCSI, the only government recognised accreditation body for laboratory and testing centres in Australia, between February 18 and 21.

“They checked for compliance against both quality and safety standards,” Mr Portley said.

“The certifications in environmental and safety management systems were driven by our need to comply with the Environmental Protection Act and current workplace health and safety legislation”.

Mr Portley said the external auditors focused on the progress of the upgrade activities agreed to in 2002 and the integration of the common elements within the individual Property and Facilities quality, safety and environmental management systems.

“We are heading towards an integrated management system to oversee compliance, especially in the safety and environmental areas. The change in the quality standard was very much going away from a largely process based approach to a much more customer focused approach,” Mr Portley said.

The UQ Property and Facilities Division is responsible for the construction of new buildings, alterations to existing accommodation, maintenance of University grounds, security and cleaning. It covers over 100 buildings on the main St Lucia campus as well as 20 buildings on the Ipswich campus and 272 buildings on the Gatton campus and other external properties.

Mr Portley said considering the size of the Property and Facilities Division and the number of external bodies it worked with it made sense to have a practical management system.

“Our initial reason for seeking quality certification was that if we expected the contractors and companies UQ dealt with to have quality systems in place then UQ should also have a quality management system,” he said.

Media: For more information, contact Gary Portley (telephone 07 3365 3000, email: g.portley@pf.uq.edu.au) or Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email: c.saxby@uq.edu.au).