BERA is looking to develop an educational research ‘Observatory’ which can provide baseline data and information about the activity taking place under the ‘educational research’ banner. It is important to continue to monitor the health and general state of education research in the UK.

In doing this, we are seeking to make use of existing sources and not commissioning new data. Any plans must also be aware of the desire to update this on a regular basis and contain the ability to benchmark both over time and against other disciplines.

Many of these issues and key elements of the data were collected as part of the project in 2011 undertaken jointly by BERA and UCET (the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers). This project undertook a review of current policy developments which led to a report entitled ‘Prospects for Education Research in Education Departments in Higher Education in the UK’ (Whitty et al, 2012).

Application Process

BERA is now inviting applications from those interested in compiling this first Observatory on our behalf. At the moment this is viewed as one-off task but if successful, BERA would be looking to re-commission on a regular basis.

The budget for this work is £5,000 (inclusive of VAT)

Please express your interest with by producing a short covering note, CV and an outline of what data you would plan to include, where you would source this and how you might present the final report.

We would imagine that there will be further discussion with applicants about this before the final appointment is confirmed.

We hope to make a final appointment in early April 2014 with a view to the work being delivered throughout the spring and ready for publication by the summer.

Send applications to Nick Johnson, BERA Executive Director, by 12pm on Friday 28th February 2014.

Either by post to:

BERA, 9-11 Endsleigh Gardens, London, WC1H 0EH

Or by email to: admin@bera.ac.uk (clearly marking your email BERA Observatory)

By taking on this task, authors are granting permission for BERA to copyedit, format and publish the outcome according to BERA’s publishing process, and to distribute it in print form and electronically.