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Student Risk Report: Next Release​

The next version of this report will be released on April 14, 2026, and will include data covering the period from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2025.

Student Risk Report: Data from Education Programs,
​January 1, 2023 - December 31, 2024 ​

    Please complete all fields to download the report:
A previous version of this publication included an error in tabulation of the Property Loss categories in the chart on page 11 and 12. A corrected version was made available on May 28, 2025.

Instructions for Contributing Data

If you work at an education abroad provider organization and would like to contribute your data to this project, please follow the instructions below. 
Step 1: Review Data Collection Plan
File Size: 240 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Step 2: Use the Template to Prepare Your Data
File Size: 49 kb
File Type: xlsx
Download File

Frequently Asked Questions

How can my organization join this project?
Education Abroad Provider Organizations and Institutions of Higher Education are invited to join the initiative, regardless of Forum membership status. Interested organizations' representatives can review the submission materials above and submit their data at any time.
For inclusion in the next iteration of the report, data must be received by February 15, 2027.

Direct additional questions to The Forum at [email protected]. 
How do I know That the Data I report to this project is safe?
Your preparation of your organization's data is the best way to protect the private and sensitive information of your students and staff. The Forum on Education Abroad and its partners in this endeavor have held the privacy of students and their loved ones as a high priority throughout the course of this project. The primary form of data protection is for participating organizations to remove all personally identifying information about individuals involved in reported incidents before submitting their semi-annual reports to the project. Data submitted to this project is collected and retained by The Forum on Education Abroad in accordance with our privacy policy. Only essential Forum research staff will have access to the original reporting documents received for the purposes of contributor verification and to remove potential duplicates from the incidents reported. 
What if there are laws in my jurisdiction that prohibit me from sharing certain kinds of information with third parties?
The Forum does not require organizations to disclose any personally identifiable information to participate in this project. If you're still concerned about your ability to contribute to the project, contact The Forum to discuss your specific situation and identify possible solutions. 
What should i do if an incident is reportable under multiple incident type categories?
Incidents that meet the criteria for multiple incident types should include both incident types in a single entry. Separate incident types with a comma in the spreadsheet cell.
How should I report incidents where a student on the program is the one causing violence/harm/injury?
Except when the action results in an arrest, this incident is not reportable to this project. This report only explores incidents where education abroad participants are the victims or patients of the incident. At this time, we do not collect information about (accused) perpetrators, nor about students who are witnesses to crimes or serve as support to others following a reportable incident.
How should i report information about an incident that results in hospitalization?
Hospitalization should always include a second result of incident category when available, e.g., after hospitalization, did the student return to program? Or withdraw from the program and go home early? Include both results in a single entry. Separate results with a comma in the spreadsheet cell.
When reporting whether the incident happened in the location of study/program activity or not, does this mean we should indicate 'yes' for homestay, internship site, a museum during an excursion, etc.?
Yes. Location of study/program activity means the city/town/village/municipality where the program activities are happening at the time of the incident. For a multi-city study tour, this means the location of the program relocates every time the group relocates. If a student is living in a major city, but traveling to a neighboring town for an internship or field research, the location of the internship or research site is the location of study/program activity. 
HoW will the forum share the results of this project?
The Forum is committed to updating the report at least annually. The report will be published on The Forum’s website in an open-access format.

Reports will never report data at the institutional or individual level. Data will only be reported in the aggregate. The Forum will endeavor to ensure that individual incidents are not identifiable from context even when anonymized, e.g., if only one contributing organization runs a program in Nicaragua, the data for Nicaragua will be kept confidential and listed as “non-reportable” in the report. Data that is non-reportable in smaller sub-samples of the data will still be included in the global statistics reported.​
HOW OFTEN WILL THE FORUM COLLECT DATA FOR THIS PROJECT?
We are currently planning to collect data twice a year. By August 15, participating organizations will be asked to submit data for the reporting period from January 1 - June 30 of the same year. By February 15, participating organizations will be asked to submit data for the reporting period from July 1 - December 31 of the previous calendar year. 

Any changes to this plan will be updated on this webpage and shared with any organizations who have participated in the previous reporting period before the change is implemented.
Still Have Questions?
Contact us at [email protected]. 

​Other Forum Research on this Topic

Comparing College Student Mortality Rates in the U.S. with Mortality Rates while Abroad

Insurance Claims Data and Mortality Rate for College Students Studying Abroad
This 7-year expansion of The Forum's 2018 investigation of critical incidents using insurance claims data finds that students are less likely to die during participation in education abroad than when they are studying on domestic campuses.

Critical Incident Database
This Report provides for the first time information on the mortality rate for U.S. students studying abroad with a comparison to students studying on campuses in the U.S. The key finding of the Report is that college students studying abroad are less likely to die than college students studying on campuses in the U.S. The Report is beneficial to The Forum membership and the field by providing a context by which we can understand the relatively rare occurrence of the death of a student abroad. 
The Critical Incident Database (CID) was a tool for Forum members to use to track critical incidents occurring while their students are abroad. It also served as a method for tracking required information on incidents that should be reported for a member’s Annual Security Report as required by the Department of Education in compliance with the Clery Act. The tool is being retired in 2023 and a proposal for a new approach to incident tracking and field-wide reporting to replace the CID is underway.
The Forum on Education Abroad is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission as the Standards Development Organization for Education Abroad. The Forum on Education Abroad is hosted by its strategic partner, Dickinson College
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