On 26 November 2024, BERA marked our 50th anniversary with a celebratory event alongside our Annual General Meeting (AGM). Held in a festive atmosphere, the day highlighted the achievements of BERA and the wider academic research community in advancing educational research over the past five decades. 

The programme began with a warm welcome from CEO Nick Johnson, after which the Expert Panel on Educational Research Funding (David James, Anthony Tomei, Jo-Anne Baird, Gemma Moss, and Oby Bridget Azubuike) presented their emerging findings on the state of research funding in the UK. 

The AGM followed, where our President Marlon Moncrieffe, Vice-President Vivienne Baumfield, Treasurer Diana Burton, Publications Chair Ros McLellan and Conference & Events Chair Mhairi Beaton, provided an overview of BERA’s activities and finances over the past year. 

After a break for tea and coffee, the focus shifted to celebration with the 2024 BERA Awards Ceremony, honouring outstanding contributions in various categories, including the Educational Research Book of the Year, the Equality in Education Award, and the Academic Citizen of the Year. It was a pleasure to present several of BERA’s awards in person and to celebrate the recipients’ achievements, as well as the successes of the academic research community. We enjoyed hearing the thoughtful remarks of our award winners as they collected their prizes. 

We then presented the 2024 John Nisbet Award to Professor Lani Florian, Bell Chair of Education Emerita at the University of Edinburgh, who then had an inspiring “In Conversation with…” session with Mhairi Beaton, Conference and Events Committee Chair. 

The event concluded with a reflective panel, ‘BERA at 50 – Memories Across the Decades’, featuring insights from key figures such as Marlon Moncrieffe, Ian Menter, Pat Sikes and Dominic Wyse, who shared their memories and hopes for BERA’s future. 

The celebrations ended on a high note with the ceremonial cutting of the BERA 50th birthday cake and a drinks and canapés reception (15), bringing the day to a celebratory close.