Safety and Risk in Residence Abroad

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Safety and Risk in Residence Abroad

• John Canning and Vicky Wright
• Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and
  Area Studies
• University of Southampton

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Why is safety and risk an issue?

• We recognise that students take risks and gain
  from them.
• Students may take risks to increase their
  intercultural competence.
• Recognition of hazards and calculation of risk
  means risk can be decreased
• Risk assessment may provide useful legal evidence.

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Duty of care

• The duty which rests upon an individual or
  organisation to ensure that all reasonable steps
  are taken to ensure the safety of any person
  involved in any activity for which that
  individual or organisation is responsible.
  (British Canoe Association website).

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Duty of Care (2)

• The legal obligation to take reasonable care to
  avoid causing damage. Doctors have a duty of
  care, as do drivers to other road users, and
  solicitors to their clients. A breach of duty of
  care can give risk of a civil claim for
  negligence. (Cutts 1992 71-72).

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Beyond a duty of care

• RA is a marketing tool.
• HEIs are service providers- students customers.
• Service providers have obligations- customers
  rights.

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Understanding and assessing risk.
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Risks and Hazards

• Hazard anything that can cause harm.
• Risk chance, high or low, that somebody will be
  harmed by the hazard.
• Source Health and Safety Executive.

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5 steps to risk assessment.

• 1. Look for hazards.
• 2. Decide who might be harmed and how.
• 3. Evaluate the risks and decide whether existing
  precautions are adequate and whether more should
  be done.

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5 steps to risk assessment (cont).

• 4. Record your findings.
• 5. Review your assessment and revise it if
  necessary.
• Source Health and Safety Executive.

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Types of hazard.

• Social, Cultural, Political
• Environmental and Geological.
• Occupational
• Biological

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Assessing risk.

• Risk assessment need not be quantitative.
• Use fuzzy logic (high, medium, low).
• What is
• The risk of a hazard occurring?
• What are the consequences if the risk occurs?

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Risk assessment
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Source adapted from University of Oxford School
of Environment
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Factors affecting risk may include

• Gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality.
• Activities e.g. sports and leisure.
• Town, city, village of residence within a
  country.
• Language proficiency.
• Uncertainty.

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Conclusions and recommendations.

• HEIs have a duty of care to their students.
• Risk assessment is useful and not complicated.
• Clear any policy with your institutions HS
  officer.
• Involve students in the risk assessment.