Well...speaking for myself (and, I suspect, most other Americans here) I'll just say that this is ridiculous. And embarrassing. And stupid. And idiotic. And...well, I could go on but you get the point. I'll also add that the vast majority of us over here find this sort of risk avoidance-at-all-costs complete and utter b.s., and antithetical to how we live our lives. I'll defer to Ed Abbey to drive my point home:

“A venturesome minority will always be eager to set off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks, for godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American.”

Kent

Here in the Pacific Northwest... Our colleges are all about hiking. I took a hiking class as my activity class last fall. But we also have outdoor leadership degrees here as well. :)

By chance I happen to be working in Austria with a lecturer from that university. He says that the university is trying generate income by steering students to do paying outdoor activities that the university organizes . So it's not actually a ban on them doing outdoor activities and their policy is likely to change due to the outcry.

Sadly, I don’t think this reflects the ambitions of teachers for their students, or what the students actually want to do, but rather the litigious nature of society today.

Thank you for your replies and the insight from those with rather closer knowledge than myself. I reflect on a 'camping' event that I helped a local primary school with last year, aimed at 9 and 10 year olds. I took along a range of my interesting tents/shelters and had teams working out how to set them up from scratch. Interesting. very few had any concept of how to pitch a tent, and the Trailstar blew their minds....

Then, as night fell, there was the 'campfire'. The school had to bring in two 'certificated fire-makers'. (Brownie leaders were drafted in. None of the school staff were allowed to do this, including the caretaker). The campfire was made in one of those special metal fire bowls. Children were seated miles back from this actual fire and one at a time were allowed to toast a marshmallow, supervised by a teacher. Many of the children over-reacted to the sense of danger that had been created about this fire, and were too frightened to go anywhere near enough to toast the marshmallow, and there were a lot of tears. The whole idea about safe management of campfires was lost in hysteria, and the love of toasting marshmallows on a stick was just missed.

Poor kids. (At least they enjoyed the teamwork involved in figuring out my shelters!)

Boy oh Boy !

When the local scouts were looking for a suitable venue to have small fires and cook sausages on them, I volunteered my garden and even provided some dry kindling ! They had a great time and no one was seriously hurt or torched ! I did have to stop them trying to put the fires out by stamping on them in the end !!