Applying for Ethical Review in the Faculty of Medicine
Procedure for obtaining ethical review of education research proposals recruiting undergraduate students as participants in the Faculty of Medicine
As with biomedical research involving human subjects, researchers must obtain permission from the relevant ethical committee before starting their study. At Imperial, education research studies are submitted to the Education Ethics Review Process (EERP) which is supported by the Education Development Unit. The full procedure described below is for researchers who wish to carry out education studies recruiting undergraduate students in the Faculty of Medicine as participants. Researchers wishing to recruit postgraduate students in any Faculty and those wishing to recruit undergraduate students from Faculties other than Medicine may omit the Gatekeeping Step (Step 3 below). Please note that Graduate Entrant Medical Students are classified as undergraduates.
Procedure steps
Step 1: Is your study research or a curriculum evaluation?
A research study is normally designed to generate new knowledge whereas a curriculum evaluation is normally designed to determine whether or not a programme has been performing as planned. If you are not sure how to classify your proposal, you can find a very helpful table comparting research and evaluation at this site.
| If you wish to carry out an evaluation, please refer to the Director of Quality and Student Experience in the Faculty of Medicine | If you are planning a piece of education research, please progress to Step 2 |
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Step 2: Do you have prior experience of education research?
For example, have you completed a previous successful education research study which has resulted in a poster, presentation, publication or internal report? Have you had successful prior experience in a research area employing the collection and analysis of qualitative data such as questionnaires and interviews? Are you confident in the use of ordinal and nominal data such as Likert scales?
| If you are experienced in education research, move on to Step 3 | If you are not experienced, or would like some extra help anyway, refer to the Medical Education Research Unit (MERU) using the online form. One of our experienced education researchers will help you refine your research question and optimize your study design to maximise the chance of your project gaining ethical approval without a requirement for major revision. MERU does not charge Imperial students or staff (including honorary staff) for this support. |
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Step 3: Obtain permission for your study from the School of Medicine Gatekeepers
| If your study involves undergraduate students in the School of Medicine, complete the gatekeeping form | If your study does not involve undergraduate students in the School of Medicine, proceed to Step 4 |
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The purpose of the gatekeeping step is to ensure your proposed study will not duplicate ongoing work and will not coincide with any planned formal curriculum evaluation or summative assessments.
Once you have addressed any issues raised by the gatekeepers and have the permission of the relevant gatekeepers, you are ready to proceed to ethical review. This step is owned by the Director of Quality and Student Experience and sits outside MERU.
| Gatekeeper permission granted – proceed to Step 4 | Gatekeeper permission declined – revise study and resubmit to gatekeepers (Step 3) |
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Step 4: Apply for ethical review
Most applications for education research will go through the EERP route and all applications will be submitted via that route in the first instance. Highly sensitive studies may be referred to on a higher committee, but this will be decided by the EERP team. You can find more detail about the education ethical review process and the relevant form. You will find information about the EERP process and how to apply on their webpage. If you have any queries please contact edethics@imperial.ac.uk.
If you have not completed one of these forms before and need help, you are welcome to contact MERU for advice and support. The EERP team will need to see all the relevant documents including recruitment and advertising materials, consent forms, questionnaires and interview questions. The MERU team can provide advice on all of these on request. Because of the extensive nature of the process, we recommend that you work on the form offline until you are satisfied that is complete and ready for submission.
Good luck with your research!