?RIDS | Tygerberg Doctoral Office
PhD Ethics
Following successful completion of the proposal review process and submission of the review documents to the Tygerberg Doctoral Office, a student will be issued with a letter to facilitate their ethics application.
All researchers should apply for ethical approval of a study before they may commence with research. A particular responsibility for oversight rests with the institution in the case of researchers in training, such as PhD candidates. Every PhD candidate must apply for ethics approval, to the most suitable Research Ethics Committee (REC) within Stellenbosch 万博体育官网. To help make this process accessible and transparent up front, please see the Tygberberg Doctoral Office combined Ethics Application Guide for PhD students in the FMHS. (A version more suitable for other SU postgraduate students is available here).
Most PhD projects can be assessed by one, particular REC, but some projects will straddle the domain of more than one REC. Stellenbosch 万博体育官网 has five RECs, all functioning under the SU Senate Research Ethics Committee (SREC), as follows:
- Animal Care and Use (REC: ACU)
- Biosafety and Environmental Ethics (REC: BEE)
- Health Research Ethics Committee 1 (HREC1)
- Health Research Ethics Committee 2 (HREC2)
- Social, Behavioural and Education Research (REC: SBE)
A majority of doctoral research projects in the SU Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences are considered by
the respective RECs for Animal Care and Use, or Biosafety and Environmental Ethics, or the Health Research Ethics Committees. Each committee has its own rules and procedures.
Up to three months should be allowed for the ethics process of a doctoral study, from application to outcome.
On receipt of the ethics approval letter bearing your name, this should be submitted to the Tygerberg Doctoral Office at tyg-phd@sun.ac.za, right away. Ethics approval for an individual study, OR a letter adding a student as investigator to an existing, ethics-approved study, is acceptable. In case of the latter, we also request the original or most recent ethics approval of the larger study.
At this stage, your practical research may begin, while we proceed to submit your project to the Committee for Postgraduate Research on behalf of your department. From there it travels to the Faculty Board and Senate, for formal approval of your doctoral study. This is a quarterly process which takes about three months.
Regardless of the details of a specific project or the stipulations of its ethics clearance, all research should adhere to the
SU
Policy for Responsible Research Conduct. Also consult the
Principles, Processes and
Structures for Ethics in Health Research of the SA Department of Health.
?Note on Confirmation of Proposal Review
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For clinicians only:
In the case of clinical trials, a separate ethics process governed by the Department of Health follows.
In addition, the trial may be registered on the South African National Clinical Trials Register (SANCTR), housed on the website of the Medical Research Council,
at this link.
Ethics FAQs and videos developed by the UREC office:
At this link, a number of useful videos on various aspects of health research ethics have been published by the Undergraduate Research Office within the FMHS Division for Research Development & Support and Internationalisation. Staff members who watch these videos can also return to the same page to complete the relevant multiple choice quizzes in order to earn CPD points.
At this link, a number of core questions about health research ethics are answered.
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