Travel and Fieldwork Risk Assessment Template
Overseas Travel and Fieldwork
Information on how to manage the risks associated with fieldwork and overseas travel
Every year staff and students undertake their learning and/or research away from University premises. This can vary from conferences overseas to year abroad study and fieldwork. Fieldwork covers a multitude of activities across a vast range of locations, varying from interviewing and ethnographic research, to specimen collection and landscape surveying.
The University has a duty of care to its staff and students when they are conducting University business away from its premises. Additionally, academic activities are likely to be more successful if they are completed safely and smoothly without incident. Activities undertaken away from the University therefore need to be thoroughly thought through and risk assessed to ensure suitable arrangements are put in place.
The Head of Department is responsible for ensuring that adequate fieldwork planning is carried out, including assessments of the risks that need to be managed and making sure that safe working procedures have been established for all staff and students.
Staff and students travelling overseas on University business should normally use the University’s travel insurance. Please read through these pages thoroughly as they contain a lot of important information.
If you intend to undertake fieldwork or overseas travel, or you are involved with approving or administering this, please take a look at the tabs below for all the information required to ensure health and safety is fully considered, including a range of training opportunities and useful resources.
Risk assessment and procedures
All activities must have a suitable and sufficient risk assessment which considers the location, the activities to be undertaken and individual factors (such as experience). The level of detail needs to be proportionate to the risk. The University has a standard template for its Travel and Fieldwork Risk Assessment (see below).
Departments are required to use the standard template for overseas travel. However, the template can be tailored to individual departmental risk profiles. This includes a local decision on whether Section 1 of the template is uploaded to the University's Travel Insurance Application and Travel Registration System (TIRS) where the overseas travel is assessed as low risk.
For example, it may be unnecessary to upload Section 1 of the template onto TIRS where staff travel is low risk and elements of Section 1 are managed appropriately and proportionately via other means.
The University strongly supports the use of TIRS for registering overseas travel in all cases (even where insurance is not being applied for), so that they are able to locate and contact all travellers in the event of an overseas crisis.
Further advice can be obtained from the Safety Office.
The Travel Insurance Team provide a Travel Insurance Training Presentation at Travel Insurance | Finance Division (ox.ac.uk).
International Travel Approval Framework for HIGH RISK Travel
International Travel Approval Framework for HIGH RISK Travel
Policies
Heads of department maintain a responsibility for the health and safety of their staff and students when they travel overseas for University business. The Overseas Travel policy statement sets out the arrangements for the safe management of overseas travel, including:
- Risks involved in overseas work
- Risk assessment
- FCO Travel Advice
- Insurance
- Contingency planning
- Health matters
Staff and students often undertake fieldwork in the UK and overseas. Fieldwork is any practical work carried out away from the University premises for the purposes of University related research and/or teaching. Heads of department maintain a responsibility for the health and safety of their staff and students on fieldwork. The Safety in Fieldwork policy statement sets out the arrangements for the safe management of fieldwork.
Where fieldwork is undertaken overseas, you should also refer to the University policy statement on overseas travel.
Some undergraduate courses include periods where the student works in third party host institutions away from the University. Heads of department are responsible for ensuring these placements do not expose students to significant risks to their health and safety. The Student Placements policy statement outlines the arrangements which need to be put in place. Anyone organising student placements should be familiar with this policy. It specifically covers:
- Sector guidance
- The legal framework
- Risk management approach
- Roles and responsibilities
- What factors to include in risk assessments
- Placement approval and review
- Pre-placement visits
- Raising and resolving problems
- Planning for contingencies
- Preparation of students
- Training of staff
Training and resources
Training
The Safety Office provides a range of online and face-to-face training courses for travellers, supervisors and administrators.
For those looking to embark on overseas travel, a classroom session, which incorporates practical scenarios and case studies involving remote and urban locations, will provide a multitude of practical tips and resources. Equally, a pre-recorded online training presentation gives an overview of the fieldwork and overseas travel risk assessment. First aid skills, in contexts with limited paramedic support including remote and challenging environments, can be acquired through an all-day course.
Alongside a core module, supervisors have three optional E-learning modules to supplement their existing academic expertise and ensure they are fully equipped with the necessary skills. These hone in on working with human participants, outdoor/environmental fieldwork and leading student groups.
Meanwhile, a pre-recorded online training presentation looks at fieldwork and overseas travel risk assessment administration.
There may also be training available locally by your department or division. Social Sciences run termly fieldwork safety courses and workshops coping with vicarious trauma. Please visit DPhil students | Social Sciences Division (ox.ac.uk).
Further resources
The Social Sciences Division have some excellent resources and links to useful information on travel and fieldwork. A page full of written case studies and videos documenting researchers' individual fieldwork experiences can also be found.
You can obtain travel health advice, including vaccinations and prophylaxis for eligible groups, at Travel Health Clinic | Occupational Health Service (ox.ac.uk).
Some other useful links are:
