Disaster awareness levels and institutional responsibility perceptions of international students in Turkey

This study aimed to investigate the disaster awareness levels and institutional responsibility perceptions of international students in Turkey. Turkey is a country that is prone to natural disasters, and it is important to receive disaster training to be prepared for disasters. Turkey hosts more than three hundred thousand international students from 198 different countries. Bartın is one of the cities where international students receive education. Bartın is a risky city in terms of disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and landslides. This is why it is highly important for international students living in Bartın to receive disaster training. Other important issues include which institutions they would reach in a disaster situation, how they would reach them, and how they should act during a disaster. It was determined that 40 % of the participants had not received disaster training and were not sufficiently knowledgeable about relevant institutions. It was also observed that some of the responses of the participants were influenced by their gender, age, duration of living in Turkey, whether there was a risk of disasters in their home country, disaster experiences, whether they experienced loss in disasters, and whether they had received disaster-related training.