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Ethics applications: IOE students

Information for IOE students applying for ethics review approval can be found here.

 

Postgraduate taught (Masters) and undergraduate students

For applications reviewed by the dissertation supervisor and another academic member of staff - data protection compliance will be assessed as part of the review process.

All student research is required to gain ethical approval before starting.

Ethics review is required to ensure that the research conforms to the ethical standards expected by the IOE. It is also used to assist supervisors and students when reflecting upon ethical research practice.

When student research involves particularly complicated or sensitive ethical issues, it can be referred by the reviewers to the IOE Research Ethics Committee.

Guidance on face-to-face fieldwork during COVID-19

Students at any level (PGT or UG) should be looking for alternative types of projects that do not require face to face data collection. This applies to students regardless if they are located in the UK or in a country with alternative COVID arrangements. Rationale for this is, if a student was to start to a research project that involves this sort of data collection, and then local rules change – it would inevitably leave the student unable to collect data for the project they had planned, and unable to start something new.

There may be exceptions for students with very unique circumstances that would be granted permission to continue. Details of how to work with exceptional cases in relation to a request for a student intention to work with face-to-face data collection can be found here.

Ethics Guidance

Details on the student reviewing process for postgraduate taught and undergraduate students can be found here:

Ethics Application Form

PGCE students

Research forming part of normal professional practice, for example when embedded in a PGCE programme, is not required to undergo a full ethics review in the same way as other student research projects. These projects can be reviewed by the student's tutor. Where the tutor identifies that the project is a substantial piece of research rather than part of professional practice, the above application form must be completed and reviewed by a tutor and another member of the course team, in line with standard student ethics procedures.

Risk assessment

All ethics applications should cover a risk assessment of the research. Researchers need to include an outline of the risk assessment in Section 8 of the ethics form. You may find it helpful to use the IOE's risk assessment template and you can include this together with your ethics application. However, completion of the risk assessment form in addition to the ethics application is not mandatory.

GDPR-compliant exemplars for guidance

The consent forms and participant information sheets should be used as exemplars only. Researchers are expected to develop their own forms and information sheets as appropriate for their research and not reproduce or copy the examples as templates.

All information sheets developed for research must also include a link to the UCL general research participant privacy notice.

For questions about information sheets:

    Postgraduate research students (MRes, PhD and EdD)

    For applications reviewed by the supervisor and another academic member of staff - data protection registration is required before submission of ethics application

    Guidance for changing methods due to the impact of COVID-19

    Ethics Guidance

    All Postgraduate research students are required to submit their IOE Ethics Application Form to data-protection@ucl.ac.uk in order to obtain a mandatory data protection number for their research, before the ethics review. Please follow the links below for more detailed information.

    Details on and forms for the student reviewing process for all postgraduate research students can be found here:

    Ethics Application Form

    Risk assessment

    All ethics applications should cover a risk assessment of the research. Researchers need to include an outline of the risk assessment in Section 8 of the ethics form. You may find it helpful to use the IOE's risk assessment template and you can include this together with your ethics application. However, completion of the risk assessment form in addition to the ethics application is not mandatory.

    GDPR-compliant exemplars for guidance

    The consent forms and participant information sheets should be used as exemplars only. Researchers are expected to develop their own forms and information sheets as appropriate for their research and not reproduce or copy the examples as templates.

    All information sheets developed for research must also include a link to the UCL general research participant privacy notice.

    For questions about information sheets: