Over recent years, the international scene has been subject to many changes and new risk factors have arisen. Higher education institutions have developed a new awareness of these risks and threats and have tried to put measures in place to mitigate them. The Universities of the Coimbra Group are also addressing the topic and are discussing the various elements to be taken into account in order to guarantee safe and sound mobility periods for their students and staff. The project of drafting safety protocol guidelines for mobility was conceived in the Academic Exchange and Mobility (AEM) working group of the Coimbra Group. The topic proved to be so demanding and interesting that a focus group was established with the aim of benchmarking member universities’ experiences and preparing a toolkit, in the form of guidelines, to help single institutions tackle the issue and find proper and suitable solutions for it.
In particular, the guidelines aim to share the best practices for ensuring safety during international mobility and aim to help Coimbra Group members in creating effective safety procedures. However, the universal nature of the Guidebook makes it helpful to other European security-conscious universities as well. The guidelines are intended to define stakeholders, procedures and a communication plan to clarify the roles, duties and responsibilities of stakeholders involved in international mobility and raise awareness of the importance of risk assessment and pre-mobility preparation.