At Rhodes University, the ethical conduct of research is a high priority. Ethical research is promoted as part of research training and supervision in Higher Degrees review processes, short courses for staff and students, and engagements with national experts.

Rhodes has adopted the DoH 2024 Ethics in Health Research Guidelines and is accredited by the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC).

There are four committees at Rhodes to provide ethical clearance for research by students and staff:

• the Animal Research Ethics Committee;
• the Education Faculty Research Ethics Committee for low-risk studies conducted in the Education Faculty;
• the Humanities Faculty Research Ethics Committee for low-risk studies conducted in the Humanities Faculty;
• the Human Research Ethics Committee for all other studies involving human participants.

These committees are under the auspices of the Office of the DVC: Research, Innovation, and Strategic Partnerships. 

The Ethics Coordinator manages the ethics system and supports applicants. 

Rhodes University Research Ethics Forum (RU-REF) supports the coordinator and Research Ethics Committees on strategic matters.

If you are a Rhodes student or staff member and will be conducting research with animal subjects and/or human participants, you will need to apply for ethics approval before commencing with data collection. To do so, login to the ERAS Applicant portal using your Rhodes login credentials (scroll down a little; it is on the left-hand side of the screen).  

Once in your Ethics Review Application System (ERAS) workspace, Click on +Create Form and select the appropriate form from the dropdown menu:

• For research with animals (vertebrate and invertebrate), select Animal Ethics.
• For low-risk research in the Education Faculty, select the Education Faculty Ethics Form (low-risk).
• For all other research with human participants, select Human Ethics.