Research at NESA

How research is conducted at NESA

One of the core objectives of NESA is to promote an evidence-based approach to improving education standards. This is done by collaborating with researchers to support high-quality research.

Some of the researchers NESA collaborates with include:

• government agencies
• education sectors
• universities.

NESA conducts research that relates to its core functions of:

• Teacher accreditation
• NAPLAN
• Record of School Achievement (RoSA) and Higher School Certificate (HSC)
• School registration and compliance

You can submit an application to conduct education research and access data or information held by NESA. To learn more about this process, view research applications.

To view a list of research NESA has collaborated on or endorsed, view the list of research reports.

How to apply

How you apply depends on the purpose.

• A government department or agency should contact NESA by emailing research@nesa.nsw.edu.au.
• For formal academic research, such as research that has been approved by an ethics committee and may be a joint work between hospitals and academics, or similar, should email a completed NESA research application form (PDF 192.13KB) (PDF 192.13KB), the approved ethics protocol, and evidence of ethics approval.
• For other research, for example, students or professional teacher associations seeking summary data, use Application for access to NESA data and information form (PDF 132.76KB) (PDF 132.76KB).

Before applying for research

Before submitting your research application it's recommended you contact NESA with a summary of your research proposal or research question. You can contact the team by emailing research@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

You will also need a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) review.

Research in schools

NESA cannot approve research that is conducted in schools. Instead, you will need to seek approval from the authority governing each school you plan to approach. For NSW government schools, contact the NSW Department of Education, for Catholic Schools NSW, contact the diocesan authority governing each school, and check with individual school principals for independent schools.

Research fees

Research applications that involve extensive NESA resources, or have limited educational value, may incur a fee for service.

Additionally, any requests involving data extraction from NESA datasets may incur a fee.

The fee will be calculated as:

• $650 for any work up to two hours
• $250 per hour thereafter.

These fees are subject to change without notice.

Completing an application

Your application will outline the information that you must provide to NESA. You will also need to address the following criteria:

• The educational significance and potential benefits of your research to education and children.
• How your research design and methodologies are valid and meet the aims of the project.
• How your research addresses privacy, confidentiality and security issues, particularly when identifying individual students, teachers and schools.
• How your research complies with legislation, such as:
  • Section 18A of the Education Act 1990 (NSW), which deals with publicly revealing school results in a way that ranks or otherwise compares the results of particular schools.
  • The Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) including the Privacy Commissioners Statutory Guidelines on Research under section 27B of the Act, 2016.

You must also provide:

• Evidence of your university, institute, school or other organisation’s endorsement.
• The full ethics protocol and approval notice from a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) that is registered with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Projects without this will need to state why approval is not necessary.

For data linkage projects, NESA will only consider using the Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL) or a Commonwealth Accredited Integrating Authority.

Submitting an application

Once you have completed your form and collected all the required supporting information, you can submit your application by email to research@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Or alternatively, you can post your application to:

• Assessment Data and Research Services
  GPO Box 5300
  Sydney, NSW 2001

Assessing applications

Your application will be assessed against the criteria and evidence outlined above in completing an application. 

NESA will acknowledge your research application within 5 working days.

You will be notified of the outcome of your application and if approved, and when your data or information will be available.

The conditions for approval may be affected depending on the nature of the data and research application.

Research grants

NESA does not have a regular grants program. However, assistance may be provided if research projects:

• are relevant to the core functions of NESA
• the quality of the research project requires it.