The Unisafe project

About the project

In response to the increasingly important issue of security in the global world, and to its impact on Higher education students and staff experiencing international mobility, UNISAFE project aims to address the issue of safety, security and wellbeing of international mobility participants and to create effective security procedures, practical tools and training opportunities to ensure safety and security of students and staff during an international mobility period.

Objectives

To implement standard protocols, procedures and good practices for HEIs to deal with safety issues

To provide online training for HEI staff on safety and security issues

To provide online training for mobile participants on safety and security issues

To offer practical tools to HEIs staff and students association to deal with safety and security issues

Expected impact

To improve the quality and the safety of international mobility experiences
To enhance the professionalization of HEI staff on safety and security of mobile participants issues
To open a debate at local, national, international level on safety and security of mobile participants issues

Intellectual outputs

UNISAFE has developed an online self-assessment tool on Safety and security management of students and staff during their mobility period.
The aim of IO1 is to create a flexible tool which can be used in a variety of ways: as a useful baseline to assess performance and prioritize “next steps,” to support data-informed decision making as a basis for instituting change, and to compare performance across time to determine progress in achieving goals and objectives.
The self-assessment tool is a questionnaire designed to capture information within the higher education institution under a series of arguments:

  1. Role of IRO – scope of support
  2. Risk assessment and planning
  3. Travel issues
  4. Health issues
  5. Cultural awareness
  6. Safety and security
  7. Crisis Communication
  8. Professionalization of internal units responsible for safety security and wellbeing during international mobility

At the end of the questionnaire, a customised final report will be delivered: case studies, guidance contents useful for HEIs to enhance the implementation of UNISAFE best practices and recommendations are provided.

The Open course is intended to train international office staff, security managers and student associations on UNISAFE topics and to provide suggestions, good practices, and standard procedures for an effective implementation of the project within their institution. This enables the involved staff to get acquainted with standardised guidelines and policies with a deep impact on their daily work and to improve specific competencies linked to the professional profile.

Target:

  • International Relations officers
  • Safety and security officers
  • Department/Faculty mobility coordinators
  • External bodies (students association, municipalities…)

Main contents:

  1. Safety and security
  2. Role of International Relations Office
  3. Risk assessment and planning
  4. Crisis communication plan
  5. Travel issues
  6. Health issues
  7. Cultural awareness

The Open course on safety protocols guidelines is created for outgoing and incoming mobile participants (students and staff), to help them being better prepared to face up different contexts, to promote safe behaviours, and to raise awareness about personal safety and
security.

This course is designed to be accessible through the e-learning platforms of each Higher Education Institution as a massive open online course (MOOC) and to be made available for the selected students before their mobility period abroad.

Target:

Incoming and outgoing mobile participants (students, academic and administrative staff)

Main contents

  1. Cultural awareness
  2. Context and Personal Risk Awareness
  3. Travel issues
  4. Health issues
  5. Safety and security in academic mobility
  6. How to deal with an emergency

The intellectual output 4 is an emergency notification system technical report intended to define all the actors, the flows of information and the channel to manage an emergency event.
The implementation of the system will allow the safety team of the HEI to be duly and promptly informed about the occurrence of an event and to get in touch with the mobile participants with a multichannel approach that reduces the time between the episode and the contact.