Close
Information for IOE students applying for ethics review approval.
Postgraduate taught (Master's) 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 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.
IOE Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate (PGT) dissertations and reports - data collection 2022/23
Guidance for students and their supervisors/tutors
This guidance is for IOE UG and PGT students and their tutors/supervisors. It relates to new and resuming dissertations, reports and projects, for which students would like to apply for approval to collect data face-to-face (in person) or online. It applies from 1st October 2022 until further notice.
Students should complete the IOE UG/PGT ethics application form. The supervisor and an extra member of the academic staff should review the ethics application form and approve before the research can start. Students should NOT proceed to data collection unless they have received ethics approval.
All students seeking approval for face to face data collection outside the UK are required to have a back-up plan should they have to change to online data collection due to unforeseen circumstances. This plan must be included in the ethics application form, section 10, and must be reviewed by the supervisor and the other member of academic staff as part of the ethics approval process.
For any further questions on this guidance please contact Evi Katsapi, IOE Head of Undergraduate Provision for UG and Dr Jo Fraser-Pearce, IOE Head of Postgraduate Taught Provision for PGT.
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 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.
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.
Ethics guidance
- Student ethics application guidance
- Research with children - guidance on data protection issues
- Guidance for supervisors and tutors on when to refer student ethics applications to the REC
- Online MPhil/PhD international students: guidance on applying for criminal records check (DOCX)
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:
- Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) - IOE students require a DPIA if the project includes sensitive personal data and/or is likely to be high risk, which will be determined by their supervisory team. In the context of a student research project, the supervisor is responsible for ensuring the completion of a DPIA.
- Process for IOE Doctoral student data protection registration and ethics applications review
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 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.