The Research Integrity Office is responsible for supporting the operationalisation of research ethics and integrity at Unisa. All research conducted by academics, professionals and students at Unisa must obtain ethics approval before data collection, including research involving human participants, animals, environmental and laboratory studies, secondary data, and desktop studies. Applicants must complete a separate application form for each of these research categories. Ethics approval is not granted retrospectively.
Unisa follows a decentralised research ethics operational system. Each College has its own Ethics Review Committee. Some of the bigger colleges have further departmental or school ERCs, such as the College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS), the College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET), College of Human Sciences (CHS) and the College of Education (CEDU).
The College ERCs are comprised of the chairpersons of the various school and departmental ERCs. The Unisa Research Ethics Review Committee (URERC) is a sub-committee of the Senate Research, Innovation, Postgraduate Studies and Commercialisation Committee (SRIPCC) with a strategic oversight function. The URERC is comprised of the different College ERC chairpersons.
Last modified: 2023/08/31