GlobalEd Abroad

Going Abroad During COVID

Since the COVID pandemic started in March 2020, prioritizing the health and safety of all program participants including faculty and onsite staff has lead to changes in our cancellation policies, refund policies and the factors that influence our program cancellations.

This COVID information page combined with the blog updates have been designed to be a resource to you to help determine if you choose to participate in a GlobalEd program, as well as the reasons why a program may be cancelled.

REducing or eliminating financial risk

In an effort to minimize any financial risk, during the COVID pandemic we have relaxed our program cancellation policy to reduce and eliminate financial risk with regard to the program fees. Please be advised that GlobalEd is not responsible for any costs outside of the program fees, such as flights. Our recommendation is to purchase refundable flights, or flight with a change or cancellation policy. If you choose to purchase a non-refundable flight, we recommend postponing the purchase until you are confident that the program will run.

What determines if a program will be cancelled?

Whether or not we plan to run a program depends on several factors which are explained below. We review the United States Department of State Travel Advisories for Spain, the spread of the Covid pandemic, the danger levels, as well as the recommendations of our partner universities and colleagues in the Study Abroad sector. 


Below you will find a detail description of the resources we use that will be cited in our blog. 

COVID-19 Resources

U.S. Travel Advisories

The United States Department of State provide travel advisory levels  from 1-4. As the Key Image (to the left) clearly states. Four (4) is the recommendation to NOT travel to a specific country. The reasons are detailed on the country page. For example, the Spain Travel Advisory page can be found here:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/spain-travel-advisory.html

Interpretation: This is considered a reliable source and is often used by universities as a guideline to determine which programs will run or be cancelled by country. Let it be known that there is no consensus among universities. In fact, there are universities that continue to run programs in level 4 destinations. The travel advisors are also very slow to update. For this reason, we closely monitor the spread of COVID-19 on a daily basis.

Worldometers - Daily Statistics

Worldometers has been an extremely reliable source for statistics on spread of the COVID-19 pandemic since its beginnings. This website shows stats by country, with totals and daily breakdowns along with new cases, deaths and the source of their data. Information specific to Spain can be found here:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/spain/

Interpretation: analyzing this information is extremely helpful in determining the severity of a particular outbreak. Most of the spikes can be attributed to pandemic fatigue as well as major events and holiday gatherings. In the blog posts, we will share specific stats and events in an effort the provide the highest level of transparency.

US Embassy

The United States Embassy of any country you plan to visit is an excellent resource for determining the protocols for entry as well as safety. The embassy tends to post a lot of information much of which may not be directly relevant to your question. So you'll have to sift through a lot of content to find your answers. Luckily, the United States Embassy in Madrid, Spain has posted a specific section that address is only the Covid pandemic and how it affects United States citizens. Here is the link to the COVID section of the US Embassy in Spain:

https://es.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/

If you are NOT a US citizen, the information on this page may still be useful. However, it is highly recommended that you also consult your country's embassy for more information.

Destination Country Embassy/Consulate

It is always advisable to check with the Embassy or nearest Consulate of the country you wish to visit to have a clear understanding of their requirements, entry restrictions and protocols. For example, below you'll find a link to the Spanish consulate in Houston, Texas

http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Consulados/HOUSTON/en/Pages/inicio.aspx

Check out our BLOG to stay updated

By following our blog on COVID-19 updates, we will keep you informed of any changes in policies, entry restrictions, protocols or program cancellations.

COVID Updates