Travel Safety
When planning and leading a UTSA study abroad program, it is important to know how to respond when a crisis affects your program. In study abroad development, UTSA staff must be ready to manage a range of crises that may occur.
Risk Assessment & Crisis Management
All program leaders and co-leaders are required to attend the Health & Safety Briefing annually.
The Health & Safety Briefing training offers ways to assess risk, reduce risk potential, student conduct reporting requirements, resources for program leaders, and how to respond to crises more effectively.
Health & Safety Briefing Objectives:
- Learn about best practices for study abroad programs including crisis response, safety, and security.
- Assess the probability and impact of potential risk factors tied to your study abroad program, destinations, and participants.
- Reduce risk potential and impact by developing program rules, practices, for participating students.
- How to develop and follow a standard protocol in response to an active crisis.
- The type of health or safety incidents required to report.
- Identify key UTSA stakeholders.
- Understand how the Clery Act and Title IX pertain to study abroad programs.
Program Leader Handbook
Program Leader Study Abroad Handbook
Travel to Restricted Regions
Travel to a country with a travel advisory from the U.S. Department of State or a Centers for Disease Control health warning requires an additional review from the International Oversight Committee before approval. Refer to the International Travel to Restricted Regions page to determine if this applies to your program and submit a travel waiver request.
Restricted regions are broken up into the following categories:
• Extreme Risk- Do not travel
All international locations with an On Call Extreme Risk rating, or a US State Department Travel Advisory Level 4 (Do not travel)
• High Risk- Reconsider travel
All international locations with an On Call High-Risk rating, or a US State Department Travel Advisory Level 3 (Reconsider travel), or a CDC Travel Notice: Warning Level 3
• Moderate Risk- Exercise increased caution
In a country with an overall US State Department Travel Advisory Level 2 (Exercise increased caution) or Level 1 (Exercise normal precautions) AND a regional OnCall risk rating of Medium or Low, or CDC Travel Notice: Alert Level 2.
• Low/Variable Risk
Variable Risk: For countries where some, but not all, of the country, has a UTSA Category 1-3 region, the remaining regions are Category 4. (Low/Variable Risk does not apply to faculty and staff. Students traveling to a location with various risk level ratings must submit a restricted regions travel request.)
For more additional information regarding UTSA travel policies, please refer to the Information for All UTSA Travelers page
On Call International
OnCall International provides 24/7 access to English-speaking doctors, medical referrals, and evacuation assistance, as well as regional and country-specific risk and safety reporting.
All UTSA study abroad faculty and staff members are required to register their trip with On Call International.
On Call Travel Information Forward
Follow the below steps to forward your travel information to Oncall. Completing these steps is critical for your registration for international insurance coverage. Registration for destinations booked through the University Contracted Travel Agencies is automatic and no additional action is needed. To register destinations reached using personal or other outside arrangements, the traveler must take action to register them:
1. Forward your booking confirmation emails for flight and/or lodging to trips@oncallinternational.com.
2. When On Call receives your trip information, it will be entered in their Travel Monitoring platform, which is powered by OnSolve
STEP Registration via U.S. State Department
Current UTSA policy does not allow the program leaders to register groups or programs.
Faculty should reference the U.S. State Department has Consular Information Sheets, which describe entry requirements, currency regulations, unusual health conditions, the crime and security situation, political disturbances, areas of instability, special information about driving and road conditions, and drug penalties.
The information sheets also provide addresses and emergency telephone numbers for U.S. embassies and consulates. They are available for every country in the world.
During a disaster overseas, American consular officers can assist in evacuation if it becomes necessary. They cannot assist you if they do not know where you are.
Registration is particularly important for those who plan to stay in a country longer than one month, or who will travel to:
- A country that is experiencing civil unrest, has an unstable political climate or is undergoing a natural disaster, such as an earthquake or a hurricane.
- A country where there are no U.S. officials. In such cases, you should register at the U.S. embassy or consulate in an adjacent country and leave an itinerary with the Consular Section. Be sure to ask about conditions in the country that you will visit and ask about the third country that may represent U.S. interests there.
- If you are traveling with an escorted tour to areas experiencing political uncertainty or other problems, find out if your tour operator is registering your trip through the U.S. Department of State’s travel registration program.
- If it is not, or if you are traveling on your own, you can still register with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate through the U.S. Department of State.
Export Controls
What are export controls?Export controls are U.S. laws and regulations that govern the export of strategically important technology, services, and information, including equipment and technology used in research, for foreign policy and national security reasons.
The Export Administration Regulations and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations are the bodies of regulations most likely to affect research institutions. Additionally, the U.S. government, through the Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations, maintains boycotts and embargoes of certain countries that can affect many of the activities and financial transactions that take place in an academic institution.
How do export controls affect my study abroad program at UTSA?
Travel to most countries does not usually constitute an export control problem.
However, any export of technology, even temporarily, is subject to U.S. export control regulations and, in some cases, the host country’s import regulations. This can apply even to laptops and other widely available technologies. Additionally, certain entities have been placed on “restricted-party” lists that could prohibit us from doing business with them.
The UTSA Office of Export Control has a website devoted to the forms, procedures, and resources that you will need for your international activities.
What do I need to do before leaving for a study abroad program?
Ensure that your destination is not subject to a boycott or embargo (Cuba, Iran, North Korea, etc.). If licenses must be obtained and additional restrictions could apply to the program, start early!
If UTSA is entering into an agreement or contract with a foreign entity in conjunction with your study abroad program, the restricted-party screening will be run before entering the agreement or contract to ensure that the entity does not appear on any restricted-party list.
If UTSA property (laptops, PDAs, etc.) is being exported during the study abroad, follow the normal procedure for clearing it through the Office of Research Integrity office.
If the study abroad involves conducting or collaborating on research abroad, or the students and/or faculty are planning to take potentially export-controlled research with them, contact the Office of Research Integrity.
Where can I get help with an export control question at UTSA?
Visit the Office of Research Integrity - Export Control website.
Call ORI at 458-4531.
