Mental health and wellbeing in doctoral students from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds

Researching education and mental health: From ‘Where are we now?’ to ‘What next?’

There is a large body of evidence for the poor mental health of both undergraduate and postgraduate students in higher education settings (Peluso, Carleton, & Gordon, 2011), leading to the Higher...

Pay and conditions in universities: BERA’s solidarity with academics

In the 21st century, working in a university is a demanding and complex job. The expectations of academic staff are numerous. We are required to publish world-leading research outputs, and our...

BERA statement on the UCU’s industrial action

BERA acknowledges that many of our members are currently engaging in further industrial action organised by the University and College Union (UCU). We express solidarity with those taking part in...

Tender: A literature review to understand the structures and processes that influence research activities in the UK

One strand of BERA’s work historically has been a role in charting the state of educational research in the UK. For example, the BERA Observatory (Oancea and Mills, 2015) which was an initiative...

Playing quiz-games on their phones: A winning combination?

With increasing attention on blended and mobile learning alongside an ever-increasing attempt to measure engagement means that we are constantly looking for ways or tools to help students achieve....

BERA Blog highlights from 2019

BERA Blog end of year highlights

A seasonal ‘yo-ho-ho’ to all our BERA Blog readers here in the UK and around the world in this, our fourth end-of-year-highlights special edition. The BB continues to grow, with more special...

Aesthetic education: Recent thoughts on old problems

Aesthetic education is usually concerned with the role of arts appreciation in students’ personal development. Its advocates often pitch it in opposition to instrumentalism, but in doing so,...

What I meant and the respondent assumed: Improving survey questions with cognitive interviews

When we gather survey data about human perceptions and attitudes, do we elicit answers to what we really ask? How far can self-administered questionnaires (Schwarz, 1999), with no interviewer...

Dystopian Realities and Utopian Thought: Alternative Futures for Academic Practice

This event has now been postponed. To be kept updated on when this will be reschedule for, please email events@bera.ac.uk. Dystopian and utopian thinking can inform and influence the perceptions,...

Exploring instructors’ contributions to Massive Open Online Courses

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are one of the most accessible forms of education (free to join and with no enrolment limits), and so have attracted the attention of researchers for their...

Evaluating the increased importance of the impact component in the UK’s research excellence framework

The research excellence framework (REF) evaluates the quality of the research produced by the higher education institutes (HEIs) in the UK in three areas: quality of research outputs, the impact...

Spotlight on mental health and education: New special interest group hosts inaugural conference

Over 80 delegates attended the first conference of the recently launched Mental Health, Wellbeing and Education special interest group (SIG) at the University of West London (UWL) in July. The...