Keeping Students Safe

North Korean missile tests over the Pacific Ocean. Terrorist incidents in tourist areas of Europe once deemed among the safest destinations. Increased crime in some regions south of the U.S. border. As threats spasm abroad, colleges and universities are strengthening their risk analysis, communications, and other systems to respond both to active threats and to concerns among would-be education abroad students and their parents.

Heightened Concerns, Heightened Planning

“There is increased concern among students and parents about terrorism and security incidents because we have seen an increase in those types of incidents,” says Jim Galvin, director of the Opportunities Abroad program and faculty-led programs at the University of California-San Diego. “Geopolitical risks like North Korea, even if they do not harm students, are raising serious concerns. For example, we hold a webinar for parents and families each spring just before students go on education abroad and about 80 percent of the questions we receive involve health and safety.”

The bar has been raised for the level of awareness, speed of communication, and problem-solving skills of sending institutions regarding those issues, Galvin says. “We are now receiving inquiries from university administrators, parents, and the press in almost real time, and we have to respond very quickly,” Galvin says. “The need for a rapid response is a change from five years ago. We do not have a day to respond to a crisis; there is an expectation that the study abroad team is monitoring these developments 24/7…. We need to address our responsibilities more carefully and be ready to evolve to meet the changing expectations of our stakeholders.”

The vital role of effective communications systems for faculty and students abroad was illustrated in August 2017: A group of UC-San Diego students were studying in Tokyo as part of a faculty-led program when North Korea launched missiles that arced over Japan.

“Even though the missiles flew over Japan’s northern island, not near our program in Tokyo, we sent out a message on our closed Facebook site to inform and reassure our students, faculty, and local study abroad partner that we were monitoring the situation, but that since the security situation had not changed, and no travel warning had been issued by the State Department, we were not cancelling the program,” says Galvin. “We found the students and their parents were appreciative that we were watching out for their well-being. We also have a 24/7 phone number that students and faculty can call to start a claim for medical issues or evacuation.”

Full-Time Oversight

Increasingly, colleges and universities that send a substantial number of students, staff, and others abroad are hiring dedicated personnel at colleges to monitor health, safety, and security issues abroad and to be ready to respond.

Laura Provencher is an international risk analyst at the University of Arizona (UA) who tracks safety and security issues for all types of UA travelers abroad. Her position was created five years ago, and the number of positions with similar functions at other universities has quickly multiplied since, she says. “If your institution has extensive global travel, [such positions are] an important investment,” Provencher says.

Universities are also expected to have an evacuation plan ready in the event that the situation in a country becomes too risky, Galvin says. He notes that in 2011, the University of California had to execute evacuation plans in two different locations—one in response to the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, and the other in response to the revolution in Egypt. About 30 students were evacuated from each location.

The difficulty for any institution is accurately gauging what level of risk crosses the threshold where warnings and precautions no longer will suffice and students must be evacuated. In both the Egypt revolution and Japan nuclear disaster incidents, issuance of travel warnings by the U.S. State Department for both countries triggered the decision to evacuate the students, Galvin says.

At UA, the International Travel Safety Oversight Committee reviews travel to higher risk locations to make recommendations regarding traveler safety. The provost has the final authority to approve or deny the request, Provencher says. “Like many of our university peers, if the risks associated with travel are determined to be too high and travel is not essential, or in some cases critical, then the travel is not approved,” Provencher says. “Thankfully, this is rarely the case, as our travelers are generally prudent and wish to avoid situations of potential harm.”

A Complex Challenge

At some institutions, a complex patchwork of safety and security policies, procedures, and benefits applies to different students studying abroad, depending upon their origin and the education abroad or other program under which they are participating.

“All students at George Mason University in Virginia benefit from a travel insurance policy obtained by the university that covers them when they study outside the U.S., including at the branch campus in Songdo, South Korea,” says John Crist, the dean of academic affairs at George Mason University, South Korea. “These students enjoy a full array of services including a security alert system, access to emergency medical services, evacuation support, and other important safeguards and services.”

On the other hand, Crist notes, his campus hosts students from 27 other countries besides the United States, each with its own set of policies and protections. Koreans, for example, are not eligible for insurance coverage during a national emergency or war. “While we have communication systems and security protocols in place to protect everyone involved in campus emergencies, local students remain at a disadvantage if we face a catastrophic event that necessitates relocation or evacuation,” says Crist.

Security expectations for safety and security precautions at overseas campuses vary according to the environment, Provencher says, and it’s important to recognize the full scope of international engagement that is likely occurring on a campus. “Most of the focus is on study abroad, but this is likely only a component of undergraduate travel that often fails to account for graduate travel as well as faculty/staff travel,” Provencher says. “Considering and preparing other populations for a variety of complex travel scenarios with security implications is something [colleges] should seriously consider.”

Preparation and Partners

Preplanning and extensive preparation are considered best practices by a wide range of institutions and international partners working with students to identify and address safety and security issues. That begins by identifying the vulnerabilities of the traveling population and training and preparing those populations.

“For students, we provide predeparture preparation in a variety of formats: handbooks, health and safety checklists, online and in-person orientations, and safety and security scenarios,” says Marcia Henisz, director of international health, safety and security at Drexel University’s Office of International Programs. “We have wallet-sized emergency cards that are provided to all travelers and have two 24/7 emergency numbers that travelers can call: one that is provided by our emergency assistance provider and a second one that is monitored by International Health, Safety and Security. After the Paris terrorism attacks, we added more detailed information to our predeparture orientation about response in the event of a large-scale event abroad, providing guidance about shelter in place locations, and reminding students to communicate with families and the university about their safety and well-being.”

Many also say that education abroad organizations and security partners can also help increase the security for their students, staff, and faculty sent abroad.

“We’ve created and adopted a set of comprehensive institutional standards on student health, safety, and crisis management response,” says Bill Hoye, executive vice president and chief operating officer at IES Abroad, a nonprofit provider of study abroad programs. “The health and safety of our students is our top priority, and we’ve invested in it.”

Hoye says the program uses a wide variety of resources, including two crisis management teams, a medical consultant, a psychological consultant, a global security firm, and a network of trusted hospitals and English-speaking doctors.

Galvin says that the University of California relies on a private security and risk-management firm to provide safety and security support abroad, including sending country and incident alerts and evacuating study abroad students during serious situations. The UC-San Diego study abroad team also consults with the University of California Education Abroad Program systemwide resources as well as its own campus risk managers, and closely monitors the State Department’s travel warning website and reviews alerts, Galvin says.

College officials say that the safety and security procedures of partners abroad are carefully vetted to ensure compliance with sending institutions’ standards.

“With program implementation, it has been particularly important to specifically discuss safety and security issues early on in the development process with our employees and foreign partners to understand the systems that are in place and ensure that the systems will support an effective response to a security situation,” Drexel’s Henisz says. “With our foreign partners, we also share with them how we will respond to various incidents abroad and discuss how we can partner in times of difficulty so that we are working collaboratively in the interests of the student rather than duplicating efforts or providing conflicting information.”