Security in Education Abroad:
A “New Normal”
Kerry Geffert
Product Evangelist, Terra Dotta
Today’s pre-departure focus on Health, Safety, and Security bears little resemblance to the orientations of those around the year 2000, much less my study abroad. After forty some years, the only health and safety sections of my pre-departure orientation that I recall are a lecture on ‘don’t do anything stupid’ (apparently a student a few years beforehand had accidentally stabbed himself with a Swiss Army knife while riding a train; he probably was endeavoring to peel an orange), and week after week of vaccinations, all duly recorded in a yellow World Health Organization booklet.
That certainly does not mean study abroad in the last century was without its perils. During my own study abroad, one of my classmates died in a vehicular accident, another classmate awoke in jail, having stumbled off a train while in a station, landing on the tracks (yes, alcohol was involved), and a group of my classmates were forced to shelter-in-place due to campus riots. To my knowledge there were no media investigations, no lawsuits, and no pointed fingers that arose from any of those three incidents. Sometimes accidents happen, students do dumb things and societal change is not always peaceful.
Society, however, has changed, and education abroad has not been immune from some of its changes. As parents have become more actively involved in their children’s lives, accountabilities have shifted. Meanwhile, social media have altered the channels of information such that we all seem to be in a race to be the first with status updates. And woe unto those who come in second or third.
Immediate data acquisition has even played into Terra Dotta development. Itinerary data of both individual travelers and groups needed to be easily queried and reported. However, travelers do not always stay put, and multiple programs may be in one area. Therefore, the point of reference needed to be the location, not the traveler’s itinerary. Thus the Master Locator Search.
But even the Master Locator Search did not provide all the functionality desired by clients. Emails and/or texts required similar replies and staff time to collect and record those replies. More immediate feedback was the goal. In response, Terra Dotta developers went to work using app technology, creating our newest solution, AlertTraveler. Our first clients are currently in beta tests, but several of us have already had positive experiences with the application.
The “New Normal”
Speed of communication is vital to education aboard offices in today’s environment of instant, 24-hour media. But speed certainly can’t be the only reason for our increased attention to the security aspect of health and safety. Speed alone did not draw more than 100 attendees to the Forum’s recent 8th Annual Standards of Good Practice Institute: Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety, Security and Risk Management.
Recent events around the world, and especially in Europe, have heightened sensitivity to the security of traveling students and faculty. Destinations that draw significant numbers of education abroad students have been thrust into the limelight for reasons of terrorism and security, rather than reasons related to their cultural attractions. Advisors report fielding calls from anxious parents wondering if it safe to send their children to London or Paris. We assume some non-traditional locations will have inherent risks, but London or Paris? For many in education abroad, these reactions are both understandable and astounding.
The recent NAFSA Government Connection presentation, “Assessing Security Abroad – The New Normal in Western Europe,” helped put the current status of affairs in perspective. One of the presenters, Yekaterina Plitsyna of OSAC (Overseas Security Advisory Council), shared a very helpful chart depicting Victims of Terrorist Attacks in Western Europe since 1970. What was striking from this chart was the relative calm that has existed in Western Europe for more than 20 years. Except for four major, and somewhat isolated, events, the Western Europe known by today’s education abroad students is an idyllic destination for exploring the world.
Even for those students’ parents, Western Europe has seemed to be a safe destination for American travelers for most of their lives; perhaps the biggest concern has been avoiding being pickpocketed. This is despite the chart’s demonstration that during the 1970s and 1980s – the years when those parents may have been study abroad students, Western Europe was plagued by hundreds of deaths due to terrorism. However, it must be remembered that much of that terrorism was domestic terrorism in the United Kingdom and Spain, each struggling with rebellious factions within their respective countries. While horrible events, most Americans in Western Europe were unaffected. Media reports were often little more than a few minutes on the evening news or a special documentary. This was America’s “normal.”
This perception of Western Europe changed suddenly with the Paris attacks of November 2015. It should, however, be noted that security concerns did arise in the intervening years, those 20 years of relative calm. During the time of the Iraq War, American students overseas were perceived as a potential target for terrorist activity. Students were cautioned against bringing attention to themselves as Americans. Campus logo wear was to be left at home. Group itineraries were not widely broadcast. It was a time to keep a low profile. Eventually those threats diminished, and those fears faded as the use of social media increased, enabling a new generation to let the world know their continual whereabouts.
Plitsyna pointed out that November 2015 began a “new normal.” Destinations that had been popular among students are now destinations of potential concern, even though they continue to draw large student numbers. It just means that the dramatic increase in terrorist activities since Paris, Brussels and London has heightened attention to already growing concerns regarding safety and security. One now frequently hears “duty of care” in discussions of campus and administrator roles and responsibilities. Education abroad advisors who might rather focus on academic and cultural integration must be well-versed in emergency preparation and protocols. The phone number for the campus risk manager is likely on speed dial. Being able to quickly reach travelers 24-7 is becoming an expectation rather than a desire.
This “new normal” can seem daunting and distracting. Accommodating it may mean added responsibility within an already full job description. There is more information to disseminate to students and a greater challenge to get them to take this information seriously. Fortunately we are not left on our own to meet these challenges. Both NAFSA and Forum have developed excellent resources for health, safety and security policies, as well as for managing crisis situations. URMIA (University Risk Management & Insurance Association) has become increasingly involved in international education as campuses strive to become internationalized and global. And finally, do not overlook the Department of State Study Abroad website for resources and aids to travelers.
In a June 1966 speech at the University of Capetown, Robert F. Kennedy said, “There is a Chinese curse which says ‘May he live in interesting times.’ Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind.”1 These “interesting times” are our “new normal” for the foreseeable future. Our institutions continue to challenge us to be more creative as our profession evolves in new and unimagined ways. But few are better equipped than we to help lead our institutions, including each new crop of university students, toward the values that we espouse regarding internationalism and global understanding.
- Website: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, “Day of Affirmation Address,” by Robert F. Kennedy, University of Capetown, Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966. Link
Additional Resources
Crisis Management for Education Abroad, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, March 2017.
Critical Incident Database, Forum on Education Abroad, 2017.
Government Connection: Assessing Security Abroad – The New Normal in Western Europe, NAFSA Government Connection Webinar recording, June 29, 2017.
IES Abroad MAP for Student Health, Safety & Crisis Management, IES Abroad, October 2013.
International Educator, Special Edition, A Compendium of Articles on Health and Safety in Education Abroad, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, June 2017.
International Programs & Travel, URMIA Resource Guide, University Risk Management and Insurance Association, 2016.
Risk Management in Education Abroad, NAFSA e-Learning Seminars.
Standard 8. Health, Safety, Security, and Risk Management, Forum on Education Abroad, Standards of Good Practice, 2015.