Risk management

General Guidelines:

Health, safety and Security in study abroad programs are major concerns to international educators, program administrators, advisors and parents/guardians/families of program participants. Obtaining health, safety and security information prior to departure from Canada is a shared responsibility among participants and program co-coordinators.

Risk & Responsibility: "Risk is an element of any experiential learning whether at home or abroad. Ensuring that programs are well-run and that both the students and the institution are aware of and accept their responsibilities can go a long way to reducing the likelihood of negative outcomes." - Myles and Mitchell, 2000.

Safety in international learning: Any activity involves some risk, however, programs which take students away from the familiar environment of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology campus involve different and often higher risk. The institution has a responsibility to be aware of and manage these risks. The students must be fully informed of what they are getting into and be aware of their own responsibilities to keep themselves safe.

Rules of Thumb: Although the area of risk and liability management is quite complicated, there are some principles which you might help to guide you in your decisions.

• Duty of Care: As an institution you have the responsibility to take reasonable care to guard against any reasonably foreseeable event that may result in injury;
• Standard of Care: The standard of care is the level of care that one must exhibit to meet the duty of care mentioned above and normally includes everything a reasonable and prudent person would have done in the circumstances. For example, if the hotel where you and your students are staying receives a bomb threat, what would a reasonable and prudent person do? Go back to sleep? Alert the students? Leave the building? Talk with hotel security?;
• Fiduciary Duty: A fiduciary duty is a duty owed by a person in a position of trust; the duty is owed to those who are relying on that person. Your students may, for instance, trust that the institution is taking reasonable care in making decisions on their behalf concerning travel plans, accommodation, modes of transportation, etc.;
• Institutional Liability: An institution's potential liability increases as the number of decisions made on the students' behalf increases. If students are going on exchange and are given choices about where to live (on or off campus) along with good information about the risks and benefits of each, then the institution is less liable for problems with accommodation than if the institution dictates where the students have to live. However, you cannot reduce all your liability by simply leaving decisions to the students, especially when it can be seen that you had a duty of care to arrange things on their behalf; and
• Personal Liability: As an employee of University of Ontario Institute of Technology (either faculty or staff) you will most likely be covered by the institution's insurance for legal actions which result from your actions done in the course of your employment. Check with your risk management or insurance office for more information. If, however, your actions are not done in the course of your employment (for example, you were selling illegal drugs to students on your trip), neither the institution nor its insurer would be bound to defend you.

Adapted from DepartSmart, produced by the University of Guelph, Queen's University and York University; and a review by John Wilkinson of Weirs and Fould.

Risk Assessment Resources

• Department of Foreign Affairs Canada Country Reports
• Public Health Agency of Canada
• World Health Organization
• Centre for Disease Control 
• International Travel Registry - All students, faculty and staff should register on the University's International Travel Registry.

Liability Waiver and Participation Forms

All students participating in international activity must complete the liability waiver and attached forms, and submit them to UOIT International. These documents will be kept on file and shared with the UOIT's Office of Campus Safety.

International Travel Forms (including Waiver) [PDF - 73 KB]
Permission to Release Form [PDF - 88 KB]
Pre-departure Guide [PDF - 1 MB]