Any student project which involves human participants, their data or tissue will need some sort of ethical approval, although this is often given at departmental level under delegated authority from the formal Research Ethics Committees.

This guide can help you decide if ethical approval is needed.

Each department has their own approval system for student projects, although a log of departmental approvals granted to students must be kept and submitted to Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee (HSSREC) for research in the Faculty of Social Science, Faculty of Arts and Department of Psychology or the Biomedical and Scientific Research Ethics Committee (BSREC) or research in SEM Faculty (excluding Psychology) upon request, normally three times per academic year.

Further guidance

Guidelines for ethical approval of student research:

• Faculty of Social Science, Faculty of Arts and Department of Psychology can be found here.
• Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine (excluding Psychology) can be found here.

Further training

It is strongly recommended that all those involved in delivering, supervising, or supporting research at the University undertake the online training available, details can be found on the Research Integrity webpages.

Queries

If you are unsure about securing ethical approval for student research, please seek advice from the departmental ethics contact or HSSREC@warwick.ac.uk for research in the Faculty of Social Science, Faculty of Arts and Department of Psychology or BSREC@warwick.ac.uk for research in SEM Faculty (excluding Psychology).