St. Cloud Times — Exploring foreign places is a relatively safe activity for college students.
Less than 1 percent of Central Minnesotans who studied abroad between Aug. 1, 2014, and July 31, 2015, required hospitalization for a sickness during their time in other nations. And zero died.
A 2014 law requires postsecondary institutions to report the number of study abroad participants, locations of programs, hospitalizations and deaths.
Shahzad Ahmad directs the Center for International Studies at St. Cloud State University. He said as part of student-support processes, the school has always compiled the information in the Study Abroad Health and Safety Data report.
Data from St. Cloud State show none of its 343 participants required hospitalization in 2014-15. Ahmad credited the school’s orientation process for helping make that number zero.
