Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education (EduREC)

The Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education (EduREC) provides operational management of the research ethics process in this Faculty

All research must have ethical clearance.  Apart from the research done by MEd and PhD students, research projects, research studies, and /or conceptual papers / book chapters, all empirical or conceptual research need to be approved by a Scientific Committee as a project first, before the ethics application can be submitted for ethics clearance and an ethics number.

Any low risk research done with human participants, or no risk (no human participants) by researchers or students from the Faculty of Education require ethical clearance from this committee.

No contact with research participants, Department of Basic Education or schools may be made without first obtaining ethical clearance.

EduREC documents

General documents

Ensure that you include the following documents with this application using the indicated filenames:

LOW RISK research (see Risk level descriptors):

NO RISK research (see Risk level descriptors) – all documents compulsory:

  • The final version of your project proposal which has been approved by the Scientific Committee:  03-(NAMES)-EduREC_ResearchProposal.docx
  • An extract from the Scientific Committee minutes as proof that your project has been approved:  07-(NAMES)-EduREC_ScientificCommitteeApproval.docx
  • Proof of all the team members’ ethics training:  15a-(NAMES)-Proof_of_Ethics_Training.pdf
  • Proof of all the team members’ IRIMS training:  15b-(NAMES)-Proof_of_Ethics_IRIMS.pdf
  • Signed code of conduct from all the team members:  18-(NAMES)-EduREC_Code_of_Conduct.pdf

The complete application can be submitted to Erna Greyling, Erna.Greyling@nwu.ac.za, by e-mail.

All medium or high risk research, such as research including minors or vulnerable persons, is not handled by this committee but by the Education, Management and Economic Sciences, Law, Theology, Engineering and Natural Sciences Research Ethics Committee (NWU-EMELTEN-REC) - contact Ms Paballo Molefe at Paballo.Molefe@nwu.ac.za or EMHS-Ethics@nwu.ac.za for such applications.

EduREC Standard operating procedures

1.2 Standard operating procedure for the establishment of SOPs
2.2 Standard operating procedure for research ethics applications
3.2 Standard operating procedure for the selection, appointment and functioning of the REC
4.2 Standard operating procedure for complaints management
5.2 Standard operating procedure for monitoring

Gatekeeping structures

Applicants need to ensure to contact the appropriate gatekeeping structures. Here's some information about typical contacts used within the Faculty:
- School-based research: Conducting research in the DBE (permission must be obtained from the relevant provincial department after ethics clearance has been obtained from EDU-REC)
- NWU-based research with students and staff: Permission from the relevant Faculty Dean(s) and, if necessary, the School Director(s), is required after obtaining ethical clearance from the Ethics Committee.  (The Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education will contact the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education to gain permission after the ethics application has been approved.  Thereafter feedback will be given to you, the applicant.)

Training

All researchers, supervisors, promoters and postgraduate students must provide proof of ethics training and Integrated Research Integrity Management Systems (IRIMS) training with the ethics application.

The Faculty of Education recognises three types of training:

  • Faculty of Education online ethics training
    Contact Erna Greyling, Erna.Greyling@nwu.ac.za, to attend this training.
     
  • TRREE online training
    TRREE online course: http://elearning.trree.org/
    Proof of completion (certificates are provided by the website) for the following four modules must be provided:
    - Module 1 Introduction to research ethics
    - Module 2 Research ethics evaluation
    - Module 3 Informed consent
    - National supplement for South Africa (The SA Module is on the right side of the page under "National or local regulatory frameworks")

All three of these ethics trainings are valid for three years after which they must be renewed.

Contact information

Administrator

Ms Erna Greyling

Erna.Greyling@nwu.ac.za

 

Chairperson

Prof Josef de Beer

Josef.DeBeer@nwu.ac.za