Race Equality Policy

BERA Council has agreed an ambitious policy and action plan for addressing racial inequities within the Association and within the wider research community. It also redoubles our commitment to bringing BERA’s resources and expertise to bear on wider issues of inequality and discrimination in education and society. 

The policy – which affirms BERA’s rejection of any form of discrimination on grounds of sex, gender, gender reassignment, age, race, ethnic or national origins, colour, marital status, sexuality, family responsibility, disability or impairment, religious or other beliefs – is specifically concerned with tackling racial discrimination. Other, wider equality issues are being addressed in other ways across the organisation. 

In developing this policy and action plan, BERA intends to change the structural and institutional inequities and unjust power imbalances that affect our members and the wider research community – and which impede BERA’s work by denying us the benefits and advantages that diversity offers. The new policy commits us to monitoring our selection and assessment criteria and procedures to ensure that these do not discriminate unfairly or perpetuate inequalities, and to improve support and mentoring for BAME members.  

More broadly, it recognises the need to measure the success of this policy and its associated action plan, and to adjust and develop it accordingly. It is not intended to be immutable or exhaustive: we welcome feedback and input from our members and other stakeholders, particularly but not only those with BAME backgrounds.  

This document and the statistics within it will be updated annually and changes highlighted at BERA’s annual general meeting. BERA will be reviewing the policy and targets during the course of 2024.

The BERA Code of Conduct can be found here.