HREC Approval 2: Student and course-related research
Students can be involved in research (that involves Human Research Subjects) in one of two ways:
- Conducting research for their Master’s (or occasionally Bachelor’s) Thesis
- Participating in research activities in taught courses
These different kinds of involvement require different HREC procedures.
In either case we would recommend running a risk-planning session using the TU Delft Risk-planning tool, Managing Risk in Human Research. You can either run this yourself with colleagues or peers, or Master’s supervisors and docents teaching research methods, can organise sessions with groups of students. You can find out more about risk-planning sessions and using the tool here.
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If a student is conducting research for a Master’s (or occasionally Bachelor’s) thesis, then the normal HREC application procedure should be followed, but the person submitting the application will vary:
- For a Master’s thesis the application can be submitted by the student but must be signed by the Responsible Researcher (which cannot be the student and is usually the student’s research supervisor).
- For a Bachelor’s thesis the application must be submitted by the Responsible Researcher. Again this cannot be the student and is usually the student’s research supervisor.
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Where Bachelor/Master taught courses involve students conducting research with human subjects for teaching and learning purposes, the GDPR regulations and guidelines for Human Research also apply, and course leaders must confirm that students are informed about the existing regulations and guidelines. This is done by a relevant member of staff submitting a Course/module-related research formto the HREC. This form should be completed for every course/module that includes research by students involving human participants as Research Subjects at least 6 weeks before you intend the start the course.