Research ethics

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.

Unisa Research Ethics Review Structure

Unisa employees registered for a qualification at another institution are regarded as external applicants. Suppose they wish to conduct research involving Unisa employees, students, or data; they must apply for ethics approval from the URERC.

Overview of the URERC application process

Unisa employees and postgraduate students are internal applicants. They must apply through the College, School or Departmental ERCs based on their research's risk level.

Applications forms for URERC and the Colleges

To download application forms and the informed consent templates, please go to your college application forms. If there is any additional information that you may require, you may contact your College ERC Chairperson or Administrator under “Contact Us”.

Research Ethics and Integrity Policies

Policies establish boundaries for behaviour, decision-making and guidelines for best practices. Below are policies related to research and Research Ethics at Unisa and Research Integrity.

Research Ethics and Integrity Training

A hybrid training approach is followed at Unisa which includes both contact training and online training, as well as different levels of research training.

Contact us

Contact information for non-Unisa (external) researchers, Unisa employees registered for postgraduate qualifications at other universities, internal Unisa researchers and Unisa postgraduate students.