Faculty of Education Research Ethics Committee
FREC
Ethics Review Application Procedure
As from September 2013 all those who submit an application for Ethics
Review to FREC and UREC are to follow the following procedure:
1. Applicants are not to seek institutional consent for research from
the Education Directorate or any other equivalent institution before
they have submitted an Ethics Review Form to FREC and before
this Ethics Review Form has been accepted by FREC.
2. Applicants should on no condition seek formal consent from any
individuals before they have submitted an Ethics Review Form to
FREC and before this Ethics Review Form has been accepted by
FREC.
3. Applicants may speak informally to gatekeepers (like Head of
School or equivalent institution) about access to a field site.
However, they should not seek formal consent from any
individual participant before they have submitted an Ethics
Review Form to FREC and before this Ethics Review Form has
been accepted by FREC.
4. Applicants should submit the Ethics Review Form together with
DRAFT copies of Information Sheets and Consent Forms and any
other relevant documents, to the Secretary of FREC, Ms Isabelle
Warrington, at Room 104a, Level -1, Faculty of Media and
Knowledge Sciences Building (MaKS).
5. Once the Ethics Review Form has been accepted by FREC,
applicants may then proceed to get institutional permission and/or
individual permission (consent) from participants. They should
not, however, begin to collect data until they have been given
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final approval
Committee).
from
UREC
(University
Research
Ethics
6. The institutional permission may then be shown to the Education
Directorate or equivalent authority to get approval for research.
7. UREC is now asking for both a scanned and a hard copy of the
ethics proposal together with institutional permission and
supporting documents that have been approved by FREC. Please
ensure that you retain both a scanned and a hard copy of your
proposal and documents yourself.
8. Therefore once institutional permission has been obtained, a
scanned copy of the Ethics Review Form together with supporting
documents as approved by FREC, and the relevant institutional
permissions, should be sent to FREC (Ms Warrington –
isabelle.warrington@um.edu.mt ) as a single PDF document. The
name of the document should be the reference number of the
application, followed by the applicant’s name (EDU-000-15 – Joe
Bloggs).
9. In addition a hard copy of the institutional permissions and relevant
approval documents (from the Education Directorate, other
institution, Head of School etc) should then be taken to FREC
(Ms Warrington), who will add them to the applicants’ Ethics
Review application and forward it to UREC for final approval.
10.Signed Consent/Assent Forms from individual participants should
not be attached with the Ethics Review Form (it would be a
breach of confidentiality if FREC sees these). Only the unsigned
templates of the forms are required by FREC/UREC.
11. FREC will then forward the applicant’s Ethics Review Form,
together with all supporting documents including relevant
institutional permissions to UREC for approval.
12. You are kindly requested to fill in the coversheet of the Form
sections 5a, b, and c if they are applicable, even if official
permission is still pending. FREC will check that all your
documents are in place before forwarding them to UREC.
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Applicants are reminded that they should not collect data before they
have been formally informed by FREC that UREC has accepted their
application.
The Ethics Review process takes about two to three months. The process
would be smoother and faster if applicants follow the procedures, attach
all relevant documents and fill the Ethics Review Form as carefully as
possible.
Applicants are therefore encouraged to start preparing for this some time
before they wish to collect data.
Professor Mary Darmanin
Chairperson for FREC,
September 2013
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