Student Emergency Plan

Students should work with program officials or advisors/mentors to develop documentation and procedures regarding health, safety, security, and evacuation. The outline below gives guidelines of the questions that must be addressed in the plan.

If you are working through a university or established sponsoring agency there may already be a plan and you will simply need to compare it to the outline below to be sure it addresses all the points. However, if no plan exists or the existing plan is limited, use the outline below to create your own plan. This may require multiple communications with the university/agency, onsite staff, and others to collect the detailed information.

I. General Information for Handling an Emergency

  1. Name of Program.
  2. Name of Host Institution Abroad (if different from program name)
  3. Location (country, city, region if applicable)
  4. On-site Contact Person(s): include phone number(s), email address, home address, etc.
  5. U.S. Contact Person(s: include phone number(s), email address, home address, etc.
  6. How can UNH contact you quickly in the event of an emergency? Include phone numbers, email address, home address, etc. Include how quickly this can be accomplished. (Can this be done in 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, based on where you are at the time?)
  7. Who are you to contact in the event of an emergency? Please include phone numbers and email address.
    ο  What are you to do if you cannot reach this person? Who are your second and third back-up emergency contacts?
        Please include phone numbers and email address.
  8. Are students registered at the nearest U.S. Embassy by the program? If yes, please provide a name and contact person you can reach at any time, day or night. If no, please include the information on how you can register yourself. Include address and phone number of nearest embassy. How far is it to the embassy from where you will be located?
  9. How will your on-site contact person reach you and how quickly can this be accomplished? (2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, based on where students are at the time?)

II. Contingency Plans for Emergency Situations

  1. If you will be part of an organized program:
    1. Will students need to be gathered in a central location to be transported to another location, where will they be gathered? How will they get to this location?
    2. How will the program transport students to the airport or to another designated location away from the program site? (a) plane (b) train (c) motor vehicle (d) bus (Please answer for both situations.)
    3. How will the program arrange for students to fly back to the U.S. if the program is canceled?
    4. If the students need to be evacuated to another location, where will this be, what stand-by arrangements have been made so that the new site is prepared to accommodate students?
    5. If the emergency situation only involves you (i.e., injury, personal health situation), what are the steps the program would take to arrange for you to return home?
    6. How do students arrange credit if the program is canceled prior to the end of the term?
  2. If you will be traveling independently (i.e., IROP, SURF, independent study):
    1. Where should you go first in an emergency, and what method of transportation will you use to get there? Include a back-up location and method of transportation.
    2. If you cannot return to the U.S. but must vacate the region, where would you go and how would you get there? Include at least one in-country location and one neighboring country.
    3. Do the emergency contacts listed above have each others' phone numbers so they can communicate and relay information about you to each other?
    4. What are some alternate ways of communicating with your emergency contacts (i.e., telephone-landline, cellphone/text message, satellite phone, fax, email/internet, wire service)?
    5. Where does your nearest emergency contact live, and how fast can you get to him/her?
    6. Do you have emergency cash reserves, travelers' checks, credit cards, etc. on-hand, in case you can't count on banks/ATMs, or get to a bank/ATM?
    7. Which items will you have for emergency supplies and first aid kit and what resources did you use to determine this list? Is this list based on current circumstances and most common risks in your destination?
    8. Using the emergency supplies and reserve money you have set aside, for how many days would you be able to sustain yourself, and what would you use each day?
    9. In the event of a personal emergency (i.e., injury, illness, arrest), what resources do you have at your disposal. List nearby hospital/clinics, emergency response phone numbers.
    10. If there are requirements that you will need to complete, how will you arrange to do this if you need to return home early?

III. Appendix

If you will be part of an organized program, include information presented to students about health and safety concerns presented during orientation onsite at the beginning of the program.

IV. Other

Please list additional comments that would be helpful for us to know.