Joining the BPA
The BPA is a learned society in the UK – many individuals are members, as are most philosophy departments. The BPA has two main aims:
- To protect and promote the study of philosophy within higher and secondary education and in the wider community
- To assist professional philosophers in their teaching, scholarship and research, including representing the views to relevant government and administrative bodies.
Our modest running costs are covered by membership fees – we have no other source of income.
Postgraduates can also join our sibling organisation, the British Postgraduate Philosophical Association (BPPA), for £8.
Two types of membership – individual and institutional
- We encourage all philosophers to join as individual members. Joining gives you access to a members-only area of our site, where you can access our meeting minutes and other documents. Members also receive email updates (3-4 each year), vote in our Executive Committee elections, and participate in our annual general meetings. More here: why join the BPA?
- We also encourage philosophy departments and learned societies to join the BPA as institutional members – for more details see below.
Please note – we ask individuals to join, regardless of whether you belong to a department that has institutional membership of the BPA.
Individual membership
Membership runs from 1 October to 30 September. If you join during the academic year and pay by standing order, membership until the following 1 October is free.
Membership is open to anyone who is competent to teach or pursue research in philosophy, as demonstrated by their training or achievements. This includes individuals with a research degree/teaching experience but not currently employed in a teaching or research position in philosophy, and teachers of philosophy in schools. We welcome members from across the world, and especially those who have professional or personal connections to the UK.
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Full membership £15 waged, £8 unwaged (annual fee)
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Retirement membership £50 (one-off charge for those aged 65 or over)
Please go to the online membership form. Please set up a standing order using your online banking facility, or make a one-off payment in case of retirement membership. Please make the standing order due on 30 September and use your surname as the reference. For alternative methods of payment, please contact us at admin@bpa.ac.uk.
Institutional membership
We invite philosophy departments and learned societies to be institutional members. Please find our membership form here (Word document). You can pay by cheque, standing order or BACS; please let us know if you require an invoice.
Departmental membership
Open to all HE philosophy departments in the UK or any other unit, within an HE institution in the UK, which has responsibility for a substantial amount of teaching and/or research in philosophy (regardless of formal title and whether it is responsible for teaching and/or research in other areas). One specific function of the Association is to cater for philosophers not working in the conventional context of a philosophy department.
Department heads or the department’s nominated representative can attend regular meetings to hear news about the profession, share concerns, and discuss opportunities and difficulties affecting depts. The head or nominated representative is also warmly invited to participate in our AGM.
Membership fees depend on the number of staff in the department, as follows:
Number of academics* |
BPA subscription |
|
| 1-5 | £20 | |
| 6-10 | £50 | |
| 11-15 | £70 | |
| >16 | £150 |
* Count all academics at lecturer grade or higher who are on a permanent contract, whether full or part time. In the case of part-time staff please add up any fractional contracts to their full-time equivalent (such as two staff on 0.5 positions equating to 1 full-time staff) and round up 0.5 to the next whole number.
Learned society membership
We also invite learned societies to become institutional members if your objects include promoting study in areas which are wholly or primarily philosophical. Membership fees are based on the number of members your society has – table below. However, we recognise that societies have very different financial circumstances – please contact us admin@bpa.ac.uk if your society is not in a position to pay the indicated fee.
Number of members |
BPA membership fee |
|
| <50 members | £20 | |
| 51-100 members | £50 | |
| 101-150 members | £100 | |
| 151-200 members | £150 | |
| >200 members | £200 |
Renewing your membership and staying in touch
We will contact all members (including departmental and learned society members) each year, around August/September, to invite them to renew (unless you pay by standing order). If you do not receive an invitation or confirmation, your membership may have lapsed, or we may not have up-to-date contact details for you. If you change your contact details, do please let us know at admin@bpa.ac.uk!
