Taught Programme Ethics

The College undertakes the ethical approval of all research projects for taught undergraduate and postgraduate students. If you are a supervisor of a student undergoing such a project, you need to advise them to complete an application form and risk assessment form (see below).

All projects must gain ethical approval from the College Research Governance and Ethics Committee, before any research may be undertaken.

General Information

A quick guide to ethical approval

Membership of the Committee

To apply for ethical approval you need to follow this step-by-step guide:

1. First of all read Guidance notes for the application form – this will show you what is needed in each section of the application.

2. You must complete all of the following forms:

• Application form
• Risk Assessment Form
• Application Checklist - This will help you to ensure that you have included the relevant documents before you submit your application.
  

3. If you need a consent form, participant information sheet or letter to gain organisational agreement you can use the following templates which have been created to save you time:

• Participant consent form
• Participant information sheet
• Organisational agreement letter
  

4.Please hand in your signed, hard copy forms to Rachel Shuttleworth, room AD101 in the Allerton Building.

N.B. Both the application form and risk assessment form must be signed by the researcher and the supervisor before they are submitted to the secretary of the Panel.

The Panel aims to return initial review feedback to students within four weeks of submission, although students should be aware that the summer, Christmas and Easter breaks will affect review timescales. Students who submit their applications for specific panel meetings will receive separate guidance on review timescales.  

Further Resources for Students

• Informed consent
• INVOLVE – a national advisory group which supports greater public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research
• BPS Code of Ethics and Guidelines
• Guidelines for ethical practice in psychological research online
• Internet research – ethics guidance from the Association on Internet Research
• Conducting research on the internet – ethical considerations  
• Defining research – guidance for projects taking place in the NHS
• Ethics in Research and Publication.
  

Please note if you are a student intending to carry out research projects in the NHS, you must also obtain NHS research ethics approval. The normal procedure is to apply for College ethics approval before proceeding to NHS Research Ethics approval (details of how to apply for NHS ethics approval can be found at the Integrated Research Application System (IRAS))

2011/12 Summary of Performance

• Total number of new applications reviewed – 254
• Percentage of new applications approved without amendments – 17%
• Percentage of new applications requiring a full re-submission – 37%
• For those applications reviewed outside of Panel meetings, the average number of days for panel to conduct initial review – 2.5 weeks