Below is a summary of the UCT policy and procedures for ETHICS CLEARANCE AND PERMISSION TO ENGAGE UCT STAFF AND/OR STUDENTS OR THEIR DATA IN RESEARCH.

diagram

The above is an abbreviated workflow. Please download the detailed workflow.

Step 1: Approval from a UCT Research Ethics Committee

You will need to obtain ethics approval from a UCT Research Ethics Committee (REC), which ethics committee will depend on the topic of your research. You will need to complete their ethics application form, and submit the relevant supporting documentation (including annexure B “declaration for external researchers”, contained within the policy document), which will include your ethics approval letter from your home institution. Your application will then progress through the usual application process in the relevant faculty.

NOTE: You must have an ethics approval/wavier letter from your home institution before approaching a UCT REC.

Please chose the REC which most closely matches the topic of your research OR the one which most closely matches that of your home institution. If you are in doubt, please contact the Office of Research Integrity.

If you are successful in step 1, you may proceed to step 2.

Step 2: Permission from “Gatekeepers”

For accessing students:

Request permission, from the Department of Student Affairs (DSA), to engage with students. To do this you will need to complete the relevant application form and submit it along with your ethics approval letters to the ED of DSA, or the delegated authority.

Ms Nadierah Pienaar, manages this process for the DSA, please email the documents to her. Nadierah will guide you through the rest of the process if your DSA application is successful.

For accessing staff:

Request permission, from HR, to engage with the staff. To do this you will need to complete the HR194a (for research in fulfilment of a degree) or the HR194b (for general research) and submit it along with your ethics approval letters to the ED of HR, or the delegated authority.

Zoe Cosmopoulos manages this process for HR, please send the documents to her. Zoe will guide you through the rest of the process if your HR application is successful.

NOTE: UCT gatekeepers receive a large number of requests to access our staff and students. It is possible that your application/request might be declined at either of the two stages indicated above. If successful you may also encounter ‘research-fatigue’ from our staff/students, they are frequently invited to participate in research projects and may thus opt-out of participating.