The Research Centre collaborates in many ways with a variety of other related organisations. In recent years these have included: UNESCO/IIEP, Paris; the Commonwealth Secretariat; the University of Dar es Salaam, Faculty of Education; University of the Cape Coast, Ghana; Kigali Institute of Education, Rwanda; University of the South Pacific; University of Papua New Guinea; Wuhan University of Technology, China; Waseda and Kyoto Universities, Japan; the Aga Khan University, Pakistan; United Kingdom Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET); the University of Sydney; Oxford University; British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE); the Academy for Learned Societies in the Social Sciences; the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES); Department for International Development (DFID); Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); the European Union; the ERASMUS Programme; the British Academy; and ministries of education in a variety of countries ranging from Belize and Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean, to Kenya and Tanzania, in East Africa.
Our education in small states research group and international network, has been operating from the GSoE since 1994. This currently has over 80 members world-wide and hosts its own website.
The Research Centre for International & Comparative Studies (ICS) is currently the home of the BAICE Secretariat, with Prof Crossley as a former Chair of BAICE, Elizabeth McNess as (former Secretary) and Sheila Trahar, Secretary for the Association, and Keith Holmes and Angeline Barrett as former membership secretaries.
BAICE was created in September 1997 as a result of a merger between the former British Comparative & International Education Society (BCIES) and the British Association of Teachers & Researchers in Overseas Education (BATROE). These organisations, in themselves, had broad international memberships and well-established traditions of activities in the field of comparative and international education. BAICE now continues to advance such work, and to contribute to the revitalisation and reconceptualisation of the field (Crossley & Watson, 2003) by promoting research, policy development and evaluation, teaching and networking in all dimensions of the current field of comparative and international education. BAICE is, therefore, a professional association of researchers, teachers, policy makers, students and personnel from non-governmental organisations, development agencies and other bodies. Membership is open to all who subscribe to its aims. Membership can be easily arranged by contacting the Membership Secretary.
BAICE is particularly keen to promote cross-disciplinary research and the society also helps to promote the aims of a range of related organisations and bodies. These include: the United Kingdom Forum for International Education & Training (UKFIET); the Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE); the UK Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences; and the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES).
BAICE membership also offers world-wide subscription to the society’s internationally, peer reviewed, journal Compare. This is published five times a year and features in-depth articles reporting empirical comparative and international research, scholarly analyses, methodological and theoretical studies and regular book reviews relating to the field.
Each year BAICE convenes an international conference on a theme of topical importance. In alternate years, in association with UKFIET, the BAICE annual conference, is integrated with the biennial Oxford International Conference on Education and Development. In 2004 the BAICE conference was held at the University of Sussex on the theme of: Education in the 21st Century: Conflict, Reconciliation and Reconstruction. In 2006 the Conference was held at Queen's University Belfast on Diversity and Inclusion, and in September 2008 it was held at the University of Glasgow.
Reference: Crossley, M and Watson, K (2003) Comparative and International Research in Education: Globalisation Context and Difference, London & New York: Routledge Falmer
For a history of BAICE, see: Sutherland, M, Watson, K and Crossley, M (2007) 'The British Association for International and Comparative Education' in V Masemann, M Bray and M Manzon (eds) Common Interests, Uncommon Goals: Histories of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies and its Members, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, and Dordrecht: Springer.
