Membership categories & fees

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.

Individual membership

Individual members in any of the categories below are welcome from anywhere in the world.

Full membership £15 waged, £8 unwaged

Open to anyone who is competent to teach or pursue research in philosophy, as demonstrated by their training or achievements. This includes postgraduate research students, individuals with a research degree/teaching experience but not currently employed in a teaching or research position in philosophy, teachers of philosophy in schools, and retired academics.

Life membership £100 (£50 for those over 60)

Open to anyone meeting the criteria for full membership (see above).

Associate membership £8

Open to members of learned societies that are institutional members. Associate membership differs from full membership only in not carrying the right to vote in the Association’s elections or its deliberations.

Individual members resident in the UK are entitled to a variety of discounts on philosophy books and journals; click the link on the left for details.

Institutional membership

Departmental membership £40

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 its formal title, and irrespective of whether or not it is also 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.)

Learned society membership

Any learned society may become a corporate member of the BPA if it has among its principal objects the promoting of study in areas which are wholly or primarily philosophical. Membership is not restricted to UK-based societies. Membership fees are related to the membership of the learned society, as follows:

Number of members

  

BPA membership fee*
<50 members   £20
51-100 members   £50
101-150 members   £70
151-200 members   £100
>200 members   £150

* The BPA membership fees are intended as guidelines only. We recognise that different learned societies with similar numbers of members can be in very different financial circumstances, and we have no wish to discourage learned societies from joining or renewing by charging fees they cannot afford. Societies that do not wish to pay the recommended fee may simply pay a fee associated with a lower level of society membership (minimum £20).