Risk & Education Abroad:
Lessons Learned at the URMIA Conference
Kerry Geffert
Product Evangelist, Terra Dotta
Last month I had the opportunity to attend my first URMIA Conference. URMIA stands for University Risk Management & Insurance Association. It was fascinating to learn about the broad risk implications that exist within an educational institution’s day-to-day life. Some we expect, such as laboratories and sporting events. Others were new to me, such as drones and floor slipperiness. But what were particularly intriguing were some of the topics related to our world of education abroad.
At the conference were the standard topics on health and safety in education abroad. These informative and valuable sessions provided our perspective for those responsible for an array of risk matters on a campus. Risk managers need to have an understanding of physical and mental health concerns students may face on study abroad. They typically are familiar with safety matters, but may not yet have an appreciation for the variety of cultural settings in which students will find themselves. It is important that we continue to provide this information to our colleagues. By joining forces through collaboration we advance our field; however, more importantly, we advance opportunities for our students to participate in safer, more fulfilling programs abroad.
The growth in global activity of colleges and universities, along with the growing numbers of students headed to more non-traditional destinations, and the increasingly diversified profile of students headed overseas, add new dimensions to effective risk management for today’s institutions. Sessions at the URMIA conference on these topics drew large crowds. And while the topics are already incorporated into the pre-departure orientations and policies of many universities, there are still those institutions where these non-mainstream topics have yet to be addressed. Here are two of those topics:
Cybercrime
We all know about keeping our smart phones and laptops safe from potential thieves. And we know about backing up contents routinely even though we may be lax about it. But how many of us advise our faculty and students about the potential risk to the data on their devices by means other than intentional or accidental destruction? Does your campus have written policies regarding the transporting of institutional devices and intellectual property to other countries?
As the destinations and composition of an institution’s international travelers expands, so do the opportunities for loss of intellectual property. Faculty and STEM students, particularly graduate and post-graduate- level students, are making global connections that involve international travel where the potential for innocently carrying sensitive information is bound to increase. Are these faculty and graduate students traveling with laptops and other devices filled with research content, both past and present, or other proprietary information? Is there value – or potential value – to others by obtaining that content?
This topic may seem like the plot of an action movie that does not correspond to the activities of members of your institution. However, espionage is real. Foreign entities may require a scan of a device whereby the scan occurs out of your eyesight. Lax firewalls and Wi-Fi connections may allow for snooping on the traveler’s device by others. Improper securing of computer equipment (e.g., in a hotel room or locked conference room) may permit others to access that equipment when the traveler is not present. Data theft can occur without the person knowing.
A few suggestions that were provided during the URMIA sessions were:
- Develop institutional policies regarding transporting devices overseas that take into consideration the program and the destination.
- Provide institutional travelers with a clean laptop containing only necessary programs. File data should be limited to that required for the topic or activity and should be encrypted when possible.
- Change passwords just prior to departure and again immediately upon return – prior to logging into the home institution’s network.
- Where possible, keep file data on flash drives or in a secure cloud environment only.
- Pay attention to hunches and situations that don’t feel right.
Coercive Risk
The old stereotype of the privileged study abroad student in western Europe studying the humanities or fine arts is not much of a target to be exploited by foreign entities. Today’s education abroad students, however, are studying on every continent in just about every possible academic field. They are involved in fields and research encompassing cutting-edge technology and practices. They come from more diverse financial backgrounds and may find themselves concerned about their finances while on site. Or they may come from families with extensive worldwide contacts in business, trade or the military.
They may be at risk. Again, this may seem to be a topic for movie thrillers, but it is real. The FBI created a 30-minute movie – Game of Pawns – dramatizing the story of one such student, Glenn Duffie Shriver. The Bureau also created a short 8-minute video interview of Shriver recorded while he was imprisoned.
The methods of entrapment are subtle and well-honed. The marked person may not be the real target, but merely a conduit to another target; thus, a pawn.
Situations of coercion are most likely rare given the numbers of American students studying abroad. Yet creating awareness of the possibility is still an important aspect of preparing our students – and our faculty and staff – for their time abroad. Certain destinations may immediately call for this discussion; however, the unknown backgrounds and pressures of each participant may require general discussion amongst all.
Risk Tolerance
Risk tolerance is not a topic for pre-departure orientations, but is a topic of campus discussion. Open lines of communication between a campus’ education abroad office and the risk management office enable conversations regarding an institution’s level of risk tolerance. Institutions with higher risk tolerance may be open to more non-traditional international programming whereas those institutions with little risk tolerance may take a conservative approach to anything international. Armed with this assessment, campus education abroad leaders are in a better position to approve external programs and assist faculty members with the creation of new institutional programs.
As education continues to be increasingly global, new opportunities naturally will arise that will be beyond an institution’s risk tolerance level. The well-informed, well-resourced education abroad advisor may be instrumental in helping gain approval for some of these new opportunities. Professional organizations such as URMIA, NAFSA and the Overseas Security Advisory Council provide useful resources to the field as risk assessment becomes more commonplace in internationalization efforts.
In addition, the United Nations has developed a Security Risk Management model that is “used by the UN to analyse safety and security threats that may affect its personnel, assets and operations.” (UN High Commission on Refugees website). When employed on a campus, aspects of this model can assist personnel with determining risk levels of a program’s components, and thus its acceptability within the institution’s level of risk tolerance.
Fear of risk need not be a reason to limit a campus’ international footprint. Each destination, each program, each activity bears some risk. Through effective collaboration with campus risk colleagues in the development of policies and practices, risk often can be mitigated. Training participants to recognize, avoid and manage risk according to these policies will enable all involved to achieve institutional internationalization goals and contribute to meaningful experiences for all constituents.
As mentioned at the outset, attending the URMIA Conference was a beneficial opportunity for professional development. I would like to thank especially those presenters who offered their expertise to the topic of risk and education abroad, and who provided insights for this article, in particular:
- Chris Daniel, Michigan State University
- Ron Machoian, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Matt McCabe, Michigan State University
- Laura Provencher, University of Arizona
- Nick Vasquez, College of William & Mary