Birkbeck College

Department of Psychological Sciences

Ethics Committee

Tuesday 19thMay 2015

Room 420, Malet Street

Minutes

Virginia Eatough (VE), Simon Green (SG), Leslie Tucker (LT), Victoria Southgate (VS) Suraj Darbar (Minutes)

AGENDA:

  1. Apologies

Ted Melhuish (TM)

  1. Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

  1. Matters arising

3.1Professor Mike Oaksford is carrying out a workload review in response to a proposal to appoint an additional member to the Ethics committee in light of an increasing number of BSc Project students each year.

3.2The IT department hasconfirmed thatthe proposal to create an automated system that sends e-mails to staff to remind them that they need to renew their ethics approval will not be possible.

4.2DBS applicants are now able to subscribe to a DBS update service for an annual fee. This service allows students to update their DBS certificate every year so as to avoid having to apply for a new DBS check at each institution. It is unclear as to whether Birkbeck students subscribing to this service would still be required to obtain DBS approval through Birkbeck if they have already obtained this at another institution and are registered with the update service.

Action Point:

VE to talk to raise this at the next College Ethics Committee to ascertain if Birkbeck students will still be required to submit a new DBS application through Birkbeck even if they have obtained DBS approval at another institution.

It appears that Birkbeck do not subscribe to the update service so applicants will have to apply for a new check.

  1. Accessing Birkbeck students for research approved elsewhere

4.1Dr Angelica Ronald (AR) is working with researchers at the University of Oxford on studies regarding insomnia. The research will provide free online help to sufferers of insomnia. Ethical approval has been obtained by Oxford University. The approval grants permission to the researchers to recruit participants from any university in the United Kingdom. AR would like to invite participants from Birkbeck College. VE has been in contact with Professor Matthew Innes with regards to this and it was discussed at CEC.

CEC said that students should not be emailed directly, rather details about the research can be communicated via student website/newsletter or union.

  1. AOB – Henry Wellcome Building does not have a postcode

LT highlighted that the Henry Wellcome Building does not currently have a postcode. This has proven to be particularly problematic when the emergency services needed to be called out and they required a specific postcode to attend.

8Date of the Autumn Term 2015/16 Ethics Meeting

TBC