Sending Students Overseas May Require Outside Security Help

Jan 15, 2008 3:47 PM

The U.S. State Department has had travel warnings for Kenya for years, but that hasn't stopped American colleges from sending students and professors there to study.

So when post-election violence erupted in the African country in recent weeks, some colleges called on the worldwide security firm International SOS, which swooped in to set up evacuation operations for its clients, a growing number of which are from higher education.

As more college students look to study abroad in regions of the world where natural calamities, political strife and unrest are possible, universities are turning to security companies such as International SOS and iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, Annapolis, Md., to help with everything from getting a medical prescription in a foreign country to emergency evacuations, reports The Seattle Times.

Also, an ever-changing global environment is forcing universities to constantly evaluate their travel policies and to set up contingency plans to help students in need.

"There has been a big change in study abroad post-9/11," Laura Angelone, director of scholastic programs at International SOS, told The Seattle Times. "It was really the start of risk management on college campuses, which allowed schools to feel more comfortable sending students abroad."

Angelone says it's not unusual for colleges to have programs in countries on the State Department's warning lists because college administrators use other experts, including faculty, to determine if a region is safe.

"What Kenya is showing us is that while someone is advising that it's safe, good precautions are important," Angelone says. "All it takes is one incident and things move faster than anyone in the academic world can imagine."

According to The Seattle Times, in 2006, International SOS evacuated two Princeton students studying in Beirut, Lebanon, when Israeli forces launched attacks against Hezbollah. "We evacuated four to five days before the State Department did their first evacuation," Angelone says about the Lebanon operation, which included more than 300 evacuees.

The number of American students receiving academic credit for studying abroad has increased 150 percent in the past decade, with some 223,500 students in programs around the world in 2006, according to the Institute of International Education.

The trend has been fueled in part by an increasing interest in global affairs and in programs that offer study for shorter periods of time, experts say.

The Institute found an increase in travel to non-traditional destinations as well, including a 20 percent jump in travel to India, 22.5 percent to Israel, 31 percent to Peru, 32 percent to South Korea, 81 percent to Jordan and 19 percent to Tanzania.

In Kenya, where the political uncertainty continues, some U.S. universities are considering postponing their study-abroad programs. The State Department has issued a travel alert about the recent violence as well as its long-standing travel warning.

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