Liverpool/Laureate Management programmes – Dissertation Ethical Policy

Laureate and University of Liverpool are concerned to ensure that any research conducted
as part of the award of a management Masters degree conforms with the University’s ethical
guidelines.

At the same time as seeking approval for the dissertation proposal, the student must
complete the checklist (entitled Ethics Expedited Checklist), sign it and attach it to the
appropriate thread in the DA’s classroom. The document should be saved ‘ethical expedited
checklist [student name]’. The student should ask the advice of the DA if in doubt about the
answers to any of the questions.

The checklist asks a series of questions about the nature of the research. Depending on the
answers to these questions, it is possible that the student will also need to complete a full
ethical approval form, found in the class information folder. In this case the student should
follow the following procedure:

1. Complete the form, and post it to your DA in the DA classroom. The form will be
reviewed by (1) the DA and (2) the director of online studies for the Masters programme
(or the delegated authority, such as the stream manager) within the terms of University
guidelines for ethical approval. Each will be required to confirm (or otherwise) that all
significant ethical issues have been addressed.

2. The results of this review will be made available to the (University) director of studies for
the programme, whose attention will be drawn to any cases where either (a) significant
ethical concerns have been raised, or (b) the two reviewers were unable to agree.

3. In either of these cases (a or b), the director of studies will refer the case for
consideration by the ULMS Ethics Committee. Approval will be withheld until this
committee has reached a decision.

4. At one Board of Studies for Online Degrees in Management per annum, a report of cases
will be presented. This will consist of quantitative information (for example, how many
proposals required full ethical approval and how many fell into the category of expedited
approval) and qualitative analysis (such as what ethical issues were raised and how
these were dealt with). This report will be received and discussed at the board and
forwarded to the ULMS Ethics Committee for their consideration and, where appropriate,
further advice.

Research Methods 1/1

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