Health & Safety

International Education is committed to facilitating a healthy and safe experience for the participants during all of our experiences abroad. We regularly monitor risks in the countries to which our Spiders travel using governmental, insurance, and other travel resources available to us. Students also have individual responsibility to ensure their own health and safety.

IE considers health and safety issues in evaluating the appropriateness of a student's participation in an abroad program. We provide orientation meetings and materials to students prior to departure, including information about health, safety, security, cultural issues, and academic issues.

Richmond students selected to participate in UR abroad programs are automatically enrolled in the Chubb Insurance plan, which provides travel, accident and sickness coverage. Please note: Students studying in their home countries (e.g., a French national studying in France) cannot be enrolled in the Chubb Insurance plan.

While students are abroad, we monitor conditions in host countries and keep students informed of changes that are likely to affect their health or safety in a significant way. Our emergency response plan includes a means of communicating with students via email and/or cell phone.

We ask students to share all health and safety information with their parents or guardians so that they can make informed decisions regarding participation in programs abroad.

While we take many precautionary measures, IE cannot:

  • Guarantee or ensure the safety of participants or eliminate all risks from the study abroad environment
  • Monitor or control all of the daily decisions and activities of individual participants
  • Prevent participants from engaging in illegal, dangerous, or unwise activities or behavior
  • Provide or pay for legal representation of its students while abroad or ensure that U.S. standards of due process will apply to them
  • Fully replicate home campus support services while abroad
  • Assume responsibility for consequences arising from the failure of a student to disclose pertinent information to IE in a timely manner

Student Responsibility

It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that their intended travel location follows the University’s travel advisory policies. Proposed travel to countries with a US Department of State Travel Advisory Level 3 requires a travel petition and approval four weeks prior to planned travel. University funds cannot be used for travel to countries or region with a Level 4 US Department of State travel advisory. Please review the international travel policy for more information.

IE offers health and safety information to participants in our programs in many different forms. We expect that participants will be attentive to and take seriously the information provided.

We also ask that students help us provide support by giving accurate physical and mental health information in a timely manner, contact information abroad when asked, and by keeping us informed of their whereabouts and well being, especially when traveling away from the program site.

We ask that students agree to follow the University of Richmond Code of Conduct while abroad and to comply with IE's emergency procedures, with the rules of your host institution, and with the laws of your host country.