Global Assistance and Travel Insurance

Despite all efforts to mitigate risks, incidents commonly occur during travel. They can be personal in nature, such as an injury or sudden emergency at home, or they can be global in nature, such as civil unrest or natural disasters. Incidents are disruptive to travel but with planning and training their impact can be reduced to allow you to return to business-as-usual.

Monash offers several training sessions that prepare travellers and leaders to respond to incidents while travelling. Most of the following training sessions can be searched and booked via myDevelopment:

  • Provide First Aid / Provide Remote First Aid
  • Mental Health First Aid
  • Responding to disclosures of sexual harm
  • Monash Abroad Managing Risk and Safety
  • Incident Response Training for Event Leaders

Global Assistance

Global 24 Assistance is available 24/7 to support international travellers for all incident types including medical emergencies, evacuations, security threats (e.g. civil unrest), violent crimes etc. They will support travellers with commencing insurance claims, access to adequate medical treatment, travel and evacuation transportation. They will escalate incidents on your behalf to Monash University, day and night.

Case Study

Your role: You are a staff member leading a study tour with 30 students to Malaysia. This program has been developed by your faculty, so your Dean is ultimately responsible for the program. Your program is being hosted by a local university and you are co-teaching the program with local staff.

Incident: Over the course of 3 days, 5 students have tested positive for COVID-19. You have notified your supervisor (in Australia) of each new case and have received instructions that students must isolate themselves in the hotel for 5 days. The students isolating need constant attention as they must have all meals provided to them and begin to question and rebel against the requirement to isolate.

Response: You call Global 24 to notify them of each new case. They note the case and advise that each affected traveller must submit their own insurance claim to claim back medical and isolation expenses relating to the infection. The local partner staff are helpful for day-to-day logistics but the responsibility for student conduct is on your shoulders. You feel overwhelmed balancing teaching requirements with pastoral support for all students including those isolating (who are disgruntled).

Reflect on the following questions:

  • What worked well in this scenario?
  • What could have been improved?
  • Can you identify risk mitigation measures that prevented this incident from escalating?
  • This type of incident is common, how can you prepare better for your upcoming travel program?

Travel Insurance

Monash (Australia)* staff travel insurance and student travel insurance policies are available for approved University-related travel.  Full policy details and proof of insurance (certificate of currency) are available on the respective websites. Once you receive approval to travel, you will automatically be covered and separate enrolment is not required, considering the following important conditions:

  • Monash travel insurance is not available for stand-alone private travel though some cover may be available for private travel immediately prior to or after the University-related trip (your Travel Approver will provide details of levels of cover).
  • Domestic travel within Australia for coursework students is not included in the policy.
  • Travel insurance is not automatically available for DFAT 3 or 4 locations or sanctioned locations. A high risk assessment is required in these circumstances.

*Other Monash sites may have separate travel insurance arrangements in place.