Pre-departure

To make your pre-departure process as easy as possible, we have put together a timeline that highlights you what you need to do and when you need to do it.

Please note that some of these materials are password protected. The username and password will be emailed to you. You can also contact us at info@auip.com at any time.

Immediately

Read the AUIP Faculty Handbook and the Risk Management Handbook (including the Emergency Action Plans)

These contain everything you need to know about running a safe and enjoyable program in the South Pacific, and contain recommended guidelines that are supplemental to your institution’s policies. Please let us know if any of the policies therein conflict with your own institution’s policies or if there is any policy that will not apply to students on your program.

Send us your syllabus

If you have not done so already, please email us a copy of your syllabus, including course prefix and number, course title, number of credits, and faculty/instructor name and contact details. This helps us understand the learning goals of your course, which is important to our delivery of relevant learning experiences.

Start recruiting students for your program

Feel free to discuss recruitment with us and, if desired, schedule a meeting to chalk out a recruitment strategy. We have a wealth of student marketing experience and are happy to share our tips and tricks!

Decide if you want a group flight

If you want a group flight for your program, we can arrange one for you through our travel partner, StudentUniverse. It is optional for students to book on this flight. Please inform your students that the flight can be booked online with StudentUniverse. Your Program Manager will provide instructions for you about how to book.

Advantages of a group flight:

• Competitive rates
• Locked-in fares
• Smooth travel arrangements: students together at departure and arrival
• For Australian travel, StudentUniverse arranges ETA visas for eligible students
• StudentUniverse can arrange students’ domestic flights and alternative return dates for those wishing to stay longer in your destination country

Constraints of group flights:

• You must have a minimum of 10 travelers flying for the fare to go forward
• Seats not booked by the deposit deadline are released for general sale

How to book a group flight

• Once we have set up a group flight for your program and you have approved the itinerary, we’ll send you a link to the StudentUniverse booking portal.
• Share this with all admitted students, encourage them to book the group flight and remind them as needed of the deadline.

Flights are subject to availability, so it is recommended that you arrange the group flight with us as early as possible. Students and faculty must each pay a deposit by the date listed in the booking portal to secure their seat.

If you are leading an AUIP flagship program, talk to us about a Course Reading Pack 

A Course Reading Packets (CRP) may contain maps, a travel guide, modules, a quiz and readings, either recommended by you or sourced by us on subjects requested by you. Email us to discuss if a CRP is right for you and your course.

If you have run an AUIP program before and have used a CRP in previous years, contact us to discuss your updates!

Twelve Weeks before Departure

Discuss your communication plan with us

With the rate of change in phones and services and increasing ease of accessing local and international calling plan options, AUIP is no longer planning to provide faculty with a group mobile phone. However, please let us know if you have any questions about setting up and budgeting for a communication plan for your program to ensure that you are able to contact AUIP, program participants, suppliers, and your home university during the program.

Review and advise students of AUIP trip cancellation policy

You can find details about our cancellation policies in the Faculty Handbook.

If travelling to New Zealand or Australia, apply for your Electronic Travel Authorities (ETA and NZeTA) and remind your students to do so

Visitors to New Zealand and Australia are required to hold either a visa or an Electronic Travel Authority to enter each respective country. As the United States is a visa-waiver country, US passport holders will be required to hold an ETA for Australia and an NZeTA when traveling to New Zealand for short-term faculty-led programs. **Please note that travel to Australia and New Zealand is currently restricted to citizens and residents. These visa instructions may change when the border reopens to international visitors.

Information for Australia

If your program has requested a group flight to be arranged through StudentUniverse, the agency will arrange the ETA for passengers who book the group flight. Otherwise you can complete the visa process online with the Australian Consulate. This can be done here.

Information for New Zealand

Students and faculty travelling to New Zealand will need to arrange the NZeTA themselves. As part of the registration process, New Zealand’s new International Visitor Conservation Tourism Levy (IVL) will also be charged. This can be done here.
Please see our blogpost for further information about the NZeTA.

Eight Weeks before Departure

Remind your students to read the AUIP Program Handbook

Remind students to make arrangements for existing health conditions

Remind students to obtain appropriate insurances

AUIP requires all participants to have adequate overseas health, medical, and evacuation insurance for their program. This is typically arranged through your home university’s policy. Comprehensive travel insurance including but not limited to trip protection and cancellation insurance is strongly recommended!

Remind everyone to complete their forms (see the section on EIK below)

All program participants, including students, faculty, staff, and accompanying family members, must complete, sign, and return to you the forms listed below.

Final Enrollment Process

Your annual contract addendum with AUIP indicates the deadline for returning your Confirmed Enrollment List. This spreadsheet provides us with the student and faculty participant information needed to finalize the logistical plans for the program, such as names, genders, and dietary requirements.

The Final Enrollment Process is includes submitting the following forms to AUIP:

• Form 1A – Waiver of Liability, Covenant Not to Sue, and Indemnity (for faculty)
• Form 1B – Waiver of Liability, Covenant Not to Sue, and Indemnity (for students)
• Form A (Faculty Expectations and Responsibilities Form)
• Form C (Emergency Action Plan)
• Any other program-specific forms

The spreadsheet and forms will be sent to you about one month before the deadline with full instructions. If you would like these forms and instructions earlier, just ask.

Note: The deadline for your Confirmed Enrollment List is important because after this date all program fees become non-refundable, and any student cancelling after this date will incur the full program fee. This is also the deadline for all itinerary changes. Bookings cannot be finalized until we receive this information. Any special requirements sent after this date may not be accommodated. Students cannot be officially accepted on the program unless they have signed Form 1B.

Advise us if any program participants will require special accommodations (for example, to facilitate a disability)

 

Four Weeks Before Departure

Review Health and Safety Case Scenarios

You can find a PowerPoint document called “Case scenarios of health and safety incidents for faculty and staff on study abroad” here, using the password provided.

Direct all participants to register with the US Department of State Travel

All program participants need to register online with the US Department of Smart Traveler Registration Program (STEP). This pre-departure registration allows travelers to record information about their trip so that the Department of State can assist during emergencies. You may use the following information when you are asked for a local contact in the registration form:

American Universities International Programs, Ltd.
PO Box 3771
Christchurch 8140 New Zealand
Phone: +64.3.377.4644
Email: info@auip.com

Remind all program participants to review Consular Information Sheets on destination countries

Consular information sheets contain entry/exit requirements, health and safety warnings, political announcements, threats of terrorism and any other pertinent warnings for the destination country. Links to the sheets can be found on the student pre-departure page.

Order your Course Reading Pack (CRP) from the Printer if you are using one

We use the printer Bel-Jean in Athens, Georgia. Our Academic Manager will let you know when your CRP is ready to order. Bel-Jean will provide the faculty documents gratis. You should receive the following:

• Course Reading Packs
• Program Handbook (in travel-sized format)
• Faculty Handbook (in travel-sized format)

When you remind the students to order their CRP, you can let them know that instructions for doing so are available on the student pre-departure page.

You may also print the CRP yourself or use digital copies.

Hold a pre-departure meeting with your students

This should review the important information in the Program Handbook as well as other particulars pertaining to your program. If your meeting falls during New Zealand office hours, we are happy to join via Skype or Zoom if you wish.

Refer students to the country-specific packing lists available on our website

These will be useful for all faculty and staff too! Links to each destination are available on the student pre-departure page.

Pre-departure lectures

Some courses have lectures prior to departure. These include:

• Fiji: 2 one-hour lectures that need to be watched to complete a pre-departure quiz. Access these here using the password provided.
• Antarctica: students attend a 14-week lecture series. We will be in touch with all Antarctica students and staff about the schedule of these.

NEW ZEALAND

An isolated island nation in its evolutionary infancy, New Zealand is the most recently inhabited country in the world

AUSTRALIA

Australia is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, both in terms of its landscapes and its multicultural population

FIJI

Fiji is an archipelago of 330 islands, 110 of which are inhabited. It is a tapestry of ecological, cultural, and social complexity

ANTARCTICA

The coldest, driest, and windiest place on Earth, Antarctica is a frozen desert that is the least understood of Earth’s continents