Environment / Travel Guideline Scheme
In 2019 the BPA issued guidelines for environmentally responsible university business travel, and we have invited philosophy departments, centres, conference planners and other organisations to sign-up to the Scheme.
The Guidelines are intended to reduce overall the air travel amongst the community of philosophers working in the UK.
The 2019 BPA Environment / Travel Guidelines are available here, and we encourage you to share them widely and to contact the BPA if your group wishes to endorse them, or if you have suggestions for improving/updating them.
A list of subscribing institutions can be found here. Subscribing institutions are encouraged to demonstrate their commitment to these principles by displaying the BPA Environment badge (above) on their webpages.
Guidelines for improving accessibility for people with disabilities to Conferences and Public Lectures
The BPA are pleased to announce the release of two new sets of Guidelines, which were devised following the SWIP-UK/BPA conference on ‘The Profession We Want’ in May 2017. The guides, produced in September 2018 by Giulia Felappi, Alex Gregory and Helen Beebee, are aimed at organisers of conferences and public lectures/events, and include information and ideas about how to make the planning and delivery of these events more accessible to people with disabilities. They’re available here:
A Guide for Philosophers in Non-Permanent Employment in the UK
The BPA are pleased to announce the release of a new Guide, which was devised after a SWIP-UK/BPA conference on ‘The Profession We Want’ in May 2017. The guide, available here, is aimed at all those either planning to work or currently working in non-permanent academic employment in the UK, including those on teaching only contracts, short-term teaching and research contracts, and those in post-doctoral positions. Its purpose is to provide information and advice for academics in non-permanent employment on the issues they may face, and how they can address them.
Policy on casual and temporary staff: Improving Careers in Philosophy
A Guide for Philosophers in Non-Permanent Employment in the UK: This guide is aimed at all those either planning to work or currently working in non-permanent employment in the UK, including those on teaching only contracts, short-term teaching and research contracts, and those in post-doctoral positions. Its purpose is to provide information and advice for academics in non-permanent employment on the issues they may face, and how they can address them.
Improving Careers in Philosophy: This document outlines some of the problems surrounding working conditions and career progression that are faced by casual and temporary staff working in philosophy departments, and includes a list of proposals that we would like heads of department to consider implementing.
Additional resources
- Improving Careers: Philosophers in Non-permanent Employment in the UK: Dawn Phillips’ original report for the BPA Executive Committee, upon which the above document is based
- Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (to which Universities UK is a signatory; includes annexes to the Concordat)
- Further information on the Concordat: Includes links to how it works, what it means for HE professionals, and details of the executive groups.
- Research careers in the UK, a report for the Government by Nigel Thrift (VC, Warwick).
APA / BPA Philosophy Journals Survey
The BPA and the American Philosophical Association have jointly conducted a survey of 43 philosophy journals to gather data on their submission and acceptance rates, review process, and the percentages of papers submitted and accepted that were written by women and members of minority ethnic groups from 2011 to 2013. You can find the results of the survey over here on the BPA site, or over here on the APA’s site.
