Higher Education Insurance

Your students' well-being, while they are on campus, can be jeopardized by catastrophic and unpredictable events, such as acts of violence or physical altercations, medical injuries from athletic or group activities and hazing incidents. Our team of education specialists can help protect your students and institution from the risks associated with running a university or college campus.

• International study and travel risk: Whether students study abroad or travel internationally as part of their academic program, your institution needs to keep them safe and secure when they are in another country. Our risk services experts can help you plan for medical incidents, natural disasters and security events while your group travels and provide crisis management resources when you need them most. In addition, we will pair your tailored higher education insurance solution with comprehensive travel risk management.

• Liabilities from sexual misconduct: Sexual misconduct claims can be both expensive and damaging for everyone involved. Higher education institutions face reputational and financial risks associated with allegations of abuse, molestation and exploitation. We can help you secure sexual misconduct liability insurance and recommend strategies to avoid and reduce risk, ensuring you can better protect your staff and students.

• Vehicular risk: Travelling to and from student and athletic events can lead to unforeseen transportation liabilities. Whether transporting groups of students in vans or buses or using a staff member's vehicle, you must ensure that your school has the right auto insurance coverage. Additionally, employing effective organizational policies and procedures for transportation can help reduce risk and promote vehicle safety. Our team can advise on auto use policies, driver training programs, telematics and fleet maintenance guidelines.

• Violence threat risk assessment and management: Colleges and universities must have threat assessment protocols in place to respond more effectively to situations where students may pose a threat to themselves or others. These protocols outline how a school assesses and responds to threatening incidents such as possessing a weapon, a bomb threat, verbal or written (including electronic) threats to harm oneself or others and arson. Our risk services team has specialist knowledge and experience in providing a comprehensive approach to risk assessment and managing violence threats.

• Athletics: Our sports industry specialty practice focuses on the unique risks associated with intercollegiate sports programs. Our approach is about more than just insurance coverage; it’s about risk management to help avoid an incident before it happens. We surround our athletic programs with a holistic view of potential liabilities and build coverage to support them should the need arise.

• Residence/dormitories: Colleges and universities provide housing for both domestic and international students — and it must be a safe environment for them during their studies. Managing a residence introduces unique risk management strategies. Our team can help develop risk management and safety plans to support students living on campus. 

Building code violations. Fire hazards. Facility security. The exposures for your college or university campus are numerous and can put you at serious risk. We can help with property audits and inspections, fire protection engineering, loss investigations and more to address your property risks. Our team will work with you to build a tailored property risk management plan that includes the coverage you need to operate successfully.

• Construction risk: Whether your construction project is a long-term capital project or a facility maintenance project, you can face various risks, including physical damage to facilities, occupational injuries, injury or damage to bystanders and environmental liabilities. Our construction insurance specialists can support you with mission-critical protection for the full scope of your project and can also help you avoid and reduce occupational health and safety, public safety and environmental risks before your project starts. This support can include annual safety and security audits and staff training.

• Cybersecurity, information security and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance: Beyond traditional property and casualty exposures faced by higher educational institutions, the increased adoption of online learning and digital transactions has introduced new risks and challenges, including cybersecurity, academic integrity and payment card data security. Our experienced cyber insurance professionals have specialized expertise that can protect you from cybersecurity risks.

• Inventory and valuation of fine art: Educational institution insurance should also address the risk of damage to fine art, rare books and manuscripts, collectibles and similar objects on loan from other institutions. Our fine arts team specializes in identifying coverage that’s more appropriate than ordinary property insurance. Through our relationships with fine art appraisers, packers and conservators, we can help insure your prized collections to value and safeguard your treasures for future generations.

• Laboratory and technical shop safety: Even though laboratories and other specialized facilities on campuses generally have strict policies and procedures, mistakes can happen and result in devastating losses. From maintaining safe and clean work environments to protecting against human error, our team can help identify your risk exposures and find the right higher education insurance to protect your facility, students and faculty.

Natural disasters, severe weather and acts of violence can wreak havoc on your campus and cause significant disruptions to your school's operations. Organizational resilience is vital to managing a crisis and returning to normal as soon as possible. Our crisis management specialists can help ensure that you have the proper training and plans to prepare your school for and respond to a catastrophic event.

Educational institutions are not immune to the risk of occupational fraud, which can pose a real threat to your school's finances. Being adequately covered against asset misappropriation, corruption, funds transfer or financial statement fraud is crucial to keeping your school operating smoothly. We can help you determine where the gaps are in your insurance coverage to ensure you have the crime and fraud protection you need.

Noncompliance with standard industry regulations can impact your ability to operate your school effectively. Our higher education specialists will work with you to identify potential risk exposures and develop a program with policies and procedures to ensure that you comply with federal regulations. In addition, we will provide best practice assessments by reviewing existing activities and recommending action plans for improvement.

With nearly three million fatal and nonfatal workplace injuries each year, it is essential that all organizations have a well-developed safety program to protect their employees, reduce losses and control costs. In addition to following best practices and industry regulations, you need to ensure that you have consistent efforts from employees to maintain safe work procedures and a plan to respond to and protect your business when accidents do happen. We can help you develop a comprehensive workplace safety program with training and best practice assessments.