A meeting was held on 12th October 1973 to move forward a proposal to form a British Educational Research Association.

It was decided that:
1. A B.E.R.A should be formed
2. Membership should be open but in the early stages the Association should be run by a body of founder members comprising the original group and their nominees.
3. Each member of the original group would submit around 10 but no more than 20 names of persons for foundation membership.
4. A list of names for founder members should be compiled from these suggestions at the next meeting.

The main aim of the Association would be the advancement of educational research in Britain. Specifically there should be the publication of a journal/newsletter, national conferences, regional conferences, publication of annual conference reports, publication of bibliographic surveys, information on research tools and approaches.

The early history of the Association is charted in the papers from the John Nisbet archive.