Travel Abroad

Travel Abroad

Staff and students travelling on University business outside the UK must take out University of York Business Travel Cover. A risk assessment may also be required for business travel, this depends on whether you are staff/student,  the reason for the travel and the location. This information is covered by University’s Health and Safety Services webpage and University’s Travel Insurance webpage.

There are two categories of risk assessment in this case:

• Travel risk assessment
• Fieldwork/Activity risk assessment.

This document aids the Travel Risk Assessment process (see information for staff and students in the next tabs).

Categorising Travel Risk

Both  Solace Global Assistance and Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office should be used to categorise the travel risk. Solace gives a low, medium, high, severe-risk category depending on risk.

University Travel Log

Once the risk assessment has been approved, all overseas travel, regardless of employment status, destination and duration, must be logged in the University Travel Log prior to your trip. Low and moderate risk categories must be submitted at least 7 days prior to travel. High and Severe-risk categories need to be logged with insurance-enquiries@york.ac.uk at least 21 days in advance.

Recommendation is to have electronic copies of travel documents eg. passports/visas, flight details, embassy information.

It is also recommended to download the University SafeZone App on their smartphone. Link to SafeZone is here.

Student Travel

If you are a student travelling to a destination that is within a low, medium or high-risk category, as part of your degree research including to a conference, then you will be required to complete a written travel risk assessment approved by your Supervisor and person nominated by the Head of Department. This is the DSA for Biology, email biol-health-and-safety@york.ac.uk

If you are undertaking fieldwork or other activity, with the exception of meetings or conferences, a fieldwork/activity risk assessment needs to be completed also.

The risk assessment form can be found here.

Note: your supervisor must sign to demonstrate that they are satisfied that the risk assessment is suitable and sufficient for this travel. If you are travelling to a destination that is within a high or severe risk category, this risk assessment then needs to be sent to the Wellbeing, Safety & Health team for review. Travel approval to high or severe risk categories may be refused.

Staff Travel

If you are staff travelling to a destination that is within a medium, high or severe-risk category, then you will be required to complete a written travel risk assessment approved by your Line Manager and person nominated by the Head of Department. Travel approval to high or severe risk categories may be refused.

The risk assessment form can be found here.

Note: your line manager must add their signature to demonstrate that they are satisfied that the risk assessment is suitable and sufficient for this activity.