BERA is closely monitoring the developments around the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. Our position as a charity is to do our best to continue the delivery of our activities in as safe and responsible a manner as possible. To this end, we are following the official advice from Public Health England, which is updated on a daily basis, as well as monitoring the guidance and policies of many HEIs.             

Our duty of care to our staff, members, delegates and other partners governs any decisions that we are taking. We have in place plans to ensure that core business can continue in any period of office closure. However, please be aware that we might be missing key staff for periods of time and so responses from the office may take longer than usual.

We have also taken the decision to cancel or postpone all our events planned until the end of the summer term, following the latest public health advice from the government. We hope to be able to rearrange these later in the year or develop new and innovative ways of supporting them. We will work closely with colleagues and partners to keep the rest of our work going as best we can during these difficult times.

A message from BERA President, Dominic Wyse 03/04/2020

Dear colleagues,

We are all living through a life-changing situation, something that continues to raise many profound issues. Education is one of the many vital parts of society that has been affected, for example the closure of all formal education settings. This has resulted in the need for children’s and young people’s education to be supported in their homes. In addition to the impact on those BERA members who are teachers and parents our work as education researchers has of course also changed. Never-the-less we are continuing to do so many things. For example the authors, editors, reviewers and others working for our journals, and the BERA committees and groups attending meetings via the internet. BERA Council and the BERA Office team are continuing to find new ways that we can continue our work and also to mitigate some of the more serious potential effects on BERA. Thank you so much for being committed to BERA’s mission and addressing the challenges of the current situation.

Best wishes,

Dom