University ethics committee told to exempt research
The mandate of a proposed ethical investment steering group will not be extend to research, Nouse has learned.
The steering group, designed to establish a University-wide ethical investment policy, has already cleared a number of key committees and is likely to be voted through University Council next month. However, it will have no jurisdiction over what research the University accepts.
YUSU Environment and Ethics Officer Tom Langley, who has been involved in the planning for the steering group, said the University would not empower the group to use ethical conditions to reject research. Langley said: “We were told when planning the steering group to not bother trying to extend its mandate to research because the University just wouldn’t accept it.” He added: “The University want to keep the scope of research open to students as wide as possible and want to keep their departments as active as possible. If they cut down on certain things I would imagine they would struggle especially within the science departments and the University do not want to do anything to damage the academic side to research”.
Registrar Sally Neocosmos, the lead University official with responsibility for the ethical steering group, declined to answer when asked why the group’s mandate would not extend to research. She said that the development of an ethical investment policy “has the support of the Vice-Chancellor and other senior colleagues and is now in its final stages.” The University agreed to the establishment of a new ethical investment policy following pressure from students which culminated in a ‘die-in’ occupation of Heslington Hall in June 2006.
The University currently holds a ‘Code of Practice and Principles for Good Ethical Governance’ which is upheld by a University Ethics Committee as well departmental committees. The departments of Computer Science and Electronics, where the majority of arms company-funded research is carried out, both fall under the Physical Science Ethics Committee.
