Ethics issues
The scholarship of teaching and learning and the engagement of students in research and inquiry raises questions about research ethics. This section contains resources for use and reflection on such issues.
Ethics guidance for academic staff carrying out, or proposing to carry out, research related to their teaching and/or their students’ learning
ITL staff are often asked about the process of gaining ethics clearance for research and scholarly inquiry projects conducted under the broad heading of the scholarship of university teaching and learning. We have prepared the following statement in collaboration with the University of Sydney’s Human Ethics Committee in order to clarify the situation. The information contained here should be viewed alongside that contained in the University’s Human Ethics website.
- Research which is conducted for the sole purpose of quality assurance including the improvement of teaching and learning processes does not need clearance through the University’s ethics committees.
- All educational research carried out in the University that does not have clearance through the University's Human Ethics Committee, cannot be published outside the University of Sydney at anytime, in any format. Such work may only be used internally in electronic form and/or printed version, and should be clearly labelled with "Not for publication outside the University of Sydney at anytime or in any format."
- Where there is an intention for educational research to be subsequently published outside the university, clearance through the University’s Human Ethics Committee is required. The form you need for this can be downloaded directly from the website. Please note that retrospective clearance is difficult to obtain. Therefore, if in any doubt you are advised to seek clearance.
- All externally funded research requires ethics clearance. Research on aspects of education would normally go through the human ethics committee. Health related educational research may also require clearance through the relevant hospital channels.
- Internally funded research related to teaching (for example through schemes such as the Faculty of Science SCIFER Scheme and the Health Sciences Faculty RTL Scheme) requires clearance from the Human Ethics Committee.
- The University Ethics Committee has approved the use of University of Sydney teaching evaluation survey data in publications, provided that this is done by, or with, ITL staff and does not involve a student investigator. Faculty staff wishing to make use of this data in publications must acquire separate clearance through the Human Ethics Committee.
- As a rule, undergraduate pre-honours or course work projects may be approved by the Head of Department but, if there is any doubt, reference should be made to the Ethics Manager.
- All other research by staff and students requires approval from the appropriate ethics committee.
- ITL staff are normally happy to assist with ethics applications where time and work commitments allow. However, they do not take responsibility for failure to comply with the University’s ethics requirements.
