This guide to getting dissertation ethics approval in the UK explains the process students may need to follow before recruiting participants or collecting data. Your supervisor’s approval of your dissertation idea doesn’t automatically give you permission to interview participants or collect data. At a UK university, formal ethics approval usually involves a separate application explaining your methods, risks and safeguards.
The safest starting point is your university’s procedure, followed by checks for any additional permissions. Confirm the approval route before you commit to recruitment or data collection.
Key Takeaways
- Check your university’s research ethics framework and required review route for research involving human participants, even when using existing data or an anonymous survey.
- University approval, NHS ethics review and permission to access an organisation are separate requirements where applicable.
- Prepare consistent participant documents, explain your data safeguards and wait for all required written approvals before starting.
Check Your University’s Dissertation Ethics Approval Route
Establish Whether Your Project Needs Review
Read your dissertation handbook and current ethics guidance. Your university may require an application, screening questionnaire or confirmation of exemption. Whether you need ethical review depends on your methods and the risks involved.
Social science research using interviews, surveys, experiments or observation may need review. Existing records also raise ethical issues when they contain confidential information or identifiable details. A literature-based dissertation may follow a different route, but don’t decide that you’re exempt without checking.
Publicly accessible material isn’t automatically risk-free. Social media posts, for example, can expose individuals when quoted verbatim. Explain your intended use and follow your university’s assessment.
Confirm Your Route With Your Supervisor
Ask which committee or online portal handles student applications. This may be a university ethics committee, though names and procedures vary. Check whether your supervisor must sign before submission.
Low-risk work may qualify for proportionate review, though terminology and routes vary by institution. Research involving distressing topics, vulnerable participants or difficult consent arrangements may need fuller consideration. The university decides whether a proportionate review or another route is appropriate.
Before applying, test whether you can access the evidence responsibly. A focused dissertation research question can help shape your research proposal by defining its participants, method and realistic scope.
Record agreed actions after your meeting. A supportive conversation doesn’t replace formal approval.
Check Whether NHS Review or Other Permissions Apply
Use the HRA Student Research Toolkit
Health-related research doesn’t automatically require an NHS REC review. However, university ethical review alone may be insufficient.
Work through the Health Research Authority’s Student Research Toolkit with your supervisor. Its five decision trees cover whether an activity is research, which NHS approvals apply, whether NHS REC review is needed, the review type and student eligibility. The route depends on the study and current UK requirements, with proportionate review where appropriate.
The NHS REC review decision tool helps establish whether that review is required. Save its result as evidence of whether NHS REC review is needed.
Eligibility is a separate check for NHS REC review. Don’t assume that every undergraduate or master’s project can use this route. A clinical trial is one example of a study type for which you should check the correct approvals.
Depending on the NHS route, a sponsor and chief investigator may have defined responsibilities; these aren’t standard requirements for every dissertation. A host setting may also require standard operating procedures. An NHS REC may issue a favourable opinion or an unfavourable opinion; university committees may use different terms.
Separate Ethics Review From Access Permission
A decision that NHS REC review isn’t required doesn’t settle every governance requirement. Some projects still need HRA and Health and Care Research Wales Approval, or equivalent arrangements elsewhere in the UK.
Use the HRA’s guidance on required research approvals alongside advice from your university.
Likewise, a school, charity or employer may require organisational permission. That permission doesn’t replace ethics approval. For overseas research, check local requirements too; UK university approval doesn’t automatically authorise work abroad.
Prepare Your Application and Supporting Documents
Explain Exactly What You Will Do
Use your university’s current form and templates. Describe your question, recruitment, eligibility criteria, procedure and analysis in plain language. Give enough practical detail for a proportionate review, based on your project and university route.
For interviews, identify who will approach participants, where interviews will happen and whether you’ll record them. Explain how many people you can realistically recruit and what you’ll do if responses are sparse.
Your dissertation literature review can help justify the method. However, the ethics application needs practical details about what participants will experience.
Assemble a Consistent Document Pack
Requirements vary, but these documents commonly support a university application. The supporting documents should reflect your project and route, since a proportionate review may require different evidence for different studies.
| Document | What It Should Explain |
|---|---|
| Research protocol | Your question, methods, recruitment and procedure |
| Participant information sheet | What taking part involves and the relevant risks |
| Consent form | What participants agree to, including recording |
| Research materials | Survey questions, interview guide or observation plan |
| Data management plan | Storage, access, retention and deletion arrangements |
Your pack may include participant information sheets. Include any declarations your university requests, such as a conflict of interest statement.
Check your actual checklist rather than treating this as a universal submission pack.
For some NHS-route applications, use IRAS, the integrated research application system, and follow the HRA’s REC application instructions. IRAS isn’t the standard portal for every dissertation. Check the relevant IRAS instructions for required attachments and declarations.
Make Participation Voluntary and Understandable
Write a Useful Participant Information Sheet
Explain the study’s purpose, why you’re inviting the person, the activities involved and the expected time commitment. Describe foreseeable discomfort or risks without promising benefits you can’t guarantee.
Include contact details, confidentiality arrangements and the applicable complaints route. Use your university’s template for these details.
For informed consent, participants should understand what they’re agreeing to, and the information sheet, consent form and application should agree. Make clear whether you’ll record them, quote their words or share data.
Give people a genuine choice. Recruiting classmates, employees or placement clients needs care because existing relationships can create pressure.
Make Withdrawal and Confidentiality Realistic
Explain how participants can stop taking part and whether they can withdraw previously collected data. Set any withdrawal deadline according to your approved procedure.
In a genuinely anonymous survey, you may be unable to identify and remove someone’s answers after submission. Explain this before they participate.
Don’t promise absolute confidentiality if safeguarding obligations or other disclosure limits apply. Describe those limits clearly.
For potentially distressing interviews, explain how you’ll pause or end the session and provide appropriate support information. Higher-risk projects need safeguards suited to the participants and setting.
Explain How You Will Protect Research Data
Your data management plan should identify what you’ll collect, why you need it and who can access it. Include recordings, contact details, consent forms and any coding key.
Use university-approved storage and specify the required retention period. Keep identifying details separate from research material where practical. Replacing names with codes produces pseudonymised data, not necessarily anonymous data.
The Information Commissioner’s Office explains that research data protection requirements include a lawful basis for processing. Special-category data also needs a separate condition. Consent to participate and the UK GDPR lawful basis are distinct issues.
Follow applicable data protection regulations, and ask your university which arrangements apply rather than choosing a lawful basis yourself.
For an online survey, check platform approval. It may collect email addresses or other identifiers, even if presented as anonymous. Existing records need checks for access rights, original purposes, missing information and re-identification risks.
Keep identifiable participant information, recordings, employer documents and unpublished findings out of public AI tools. An institution-approved tool still needs permission for the intended use.
Submit Early and Follow the Written Decision
Check the Application Before Submission
Compare every document. Participant numbers, interview duration, recording arrangements and withdrawal deadlines should agree throughout.
Ask your supervisor to review the complete pack. Then check signatures, mandatory fields, version numbers, dates and attachments. Save the submitted version and acknowledgement.
Review schedules vary, so there’s no reliable universal turnaround time. If your project requires an NHS REC review, check its submission cut-offs and allow time for supervisor feedback, committee questions and revisions. A proportionate review can still take time. Committee structures vary, and some panels include lay members. A proportionate review should reflect the study’s risks.
While waiting, you can continue permitted preparatory work, such as reading or refining your analysis plan. However, participant-based pilot work may also require approval. Check before testing your survey or interview guide with people. Some settings may also require you to follow standard operating procedures, but this isn’t routine for every dissertation.
Respond to Conditions and Amendments
NHS RECs use terms such as “favourable opinion” and “unfavourable opinion”. University committees may use different decision language. For an NHS REC review, follow the decision letter’s instructions rather than assuming a standard resubmission route. A favourable opinion may include conditions, while an unfavourable opinion may require changes or resubmission.
Don’t treat submission, supervisor sign-off or an unresolved conditional decision as permission to begin. Even after a favourable opinion, wait until you’ve met all stated conditions.
After approval, check whether changes to participants, questions, recruitment or software require an amendment before implementation. For an NHS REC review, confirm whether proposed changes must be submitted for review before you make them. Retain your approval reference and use the approved document versions throughout recruitment.
If you’ve already started without required approval, stop and contact your supervisor or ethics office promptly. Don’t assume retrospective approval is available.
Start With a Finishable, Approved Study
A clear ethics application shows that your question is feasible and that you can protect participants and their information. Confirm the route, submit consistent documents and leave room for revisions.
Begin recruitment or data collection only when every required permission is in place. Your supervisor’s encouragement matters, but written approval is the record you need.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dissertation Ethics Approval
Do I Need Approval for an Anonymous Online Survey?
You may still need university ethics review. Anonymity reduces some privacy risks, but the questions, recruitment and potential distress still matter. Check whether your platform collects identifiers before describing the survey as anonymous.
Does Using Existing Data Remove the Need for Review?
No automatic exemption applies. Confidential records, restricted datasets and identifiable historical material can require review or permissions. Ask your university to assess the dataset, access conditions and proposed use before you begin.
Can I Recruit Participants While My Application Is Pending?
Wait until the required written approvals permit recruitment. If NHS REC review applies, confirm the route and required decision before recruiting. Even advertising or sending invitations can form part of the research procedure. You can prepare materials while waiting, but don’t circulate them unless your institution permits it.
What If My Application Receives an Unfavourable Decision?
An NHS REC decision may give a favourable opinion or an unfavourable opinion. These are the terms used for NHS REC decisions, and you must follow the committee’s instructions. If NHS REC review applies and you receive an unfavourable opinion, discuss the reasons with your supervisor and follow the stated procedure. You may need to redesign the study or provide further information, but don’t assume resubmission is available or will lead to a favourable opinion. Don’t begin the project without the required approval.
Can an Independent Researcher Use a University Committee?
Access depends on the institution’s policy, affiliation requirements and available review arrangements. There’s no automatic right to university review. Dissertation students should normally use their own university’s process rather than seeking an unrelated committee.
