Ethics Committee

Terms of Reference

The Ethics Committee is a Joint Committee of Senate and Council and serves to assure Council:

  1. that appropriate governance arrangements are in place to ensure that the University operates in an ethical manner; and 
  2. that appropriate oversight is provided in relation to the specific risks identified by Council as falling within the remit of Ethics Committee. This includes:
    1. Gauging and assuring appropriate levels of understanding and awareness of ethical standards within the staff body as a whole, and ensuring that managers are informed of their specific responsibilities in the ethical context.  This includes oversight of the provision of effective training on ethical and related issues for staff.
    2. Establishing mechanisms for ensuring the effectiveness of processes relating to ethical matters.
    3. Oversight of the University's Ethical Policy Framework and underpinning Processes and Codes of Practice.
    4. Agreeing and monitoring KPIs in relation to its remit.
    5. Establishing and approving terms of reference for appropriate sub-committees to provide assurance of ethical compliance in specific areas. Specifically, the Ethics Approvals (Human Participants) Sub-Committee will, on behalf of Ethics Committee, consider ethical issues relating to the University's research, enterprise and teaching activities; produce guidance for staff seeking to use human participants in studies; and assess individual proposals for such research to ensure the required ethical standards are met.  The Human Tissue Act Licence Sub-Committee will, on behalf of Ethics Committee, review policies and procedures specific to the HTA Licence, and have ownership of the University HTA Licence Compliance Quality Manual and the Standard Operating Procedures associated with the Licence.   
    6. Receipt of recommendations and final approval of the suitability of potential donors to the University; and ethical approval for gifts to the University exceeding the value of £50K either individually or cumulatively from the same donor.
    7. Reporting to Senate and Council.
    8. In ensuring that the University operates in an ethical manner, the Ethics Committee will give particular importance to compliance with: the Nolan Principles; the CUC Code of Governance; and the University's Ethical policy Framework.