What did COVID-19 mean for business and management students?
Published Apr 22, 2024 · Updated Feb 22, 2026
COVID-19business and managementCOVID-19 did more than disrupt delivery, it left a persistently negative tone in business and management student feedback and amplified concerns about assessment clarity. Across 12,355 National Student Survey (NSS) open‑text comments (see our NSS open-text analysis methodology) tagged to COVID-19 (2018–2025), the overall sentiment index is −24.0. Within business and management (non‑specific), students talk most about Feedback (10.6%), remain highly critical of Marking criteria (−46.5), and rate Remote learning slightly positive (+2.3), suggesting relative resilience in online delivery. The COVID‑19 topic aggregates sector‑wide NSS reflections on disruption. The business and management grouping spans generalist programmes across UK business schools. These benchmarks frame how providers adapt delivery, support, and assessment during the pandemic and beyond.
How did the move online change learning?
The shift to online platforms reshaped engagement with curriculum materials and contact time. Business and management teaching teams prioritised real‑time interaction to sustain seminar dynamics, using live webinars, discussion boards, and collaborative tools to keep momentum. Remote learning sentiment trends slightly positive in this discipline (+2.3), so teams consolidated live elements, short guided activities, and on‑demand resources to balance flexibility with structure. Staff streamlined access to readings, case studies, and datasets, and standardised navigation in the virtual learning environment to reduce cognitive load.
How did support and communication need to adapt?
Students respond best to predictable, concise updates. Providers set a single source of truth for changes, summarised what changed and why, and used weekly micro‑briefings and Q&A sessions to reduce uncertainty. Personal circumstances varied, so programmes offered virtual office hours, quick‑turnaround query routes, and signposting to wellbeing support. Younger and full‑time cohorts drove more negative COVID‑19 tone across the sector, so teams focused on timely reassurance, clear adjustments for disabled students when arrangements shifted, and flexible access routes.
How did teaching quality hold up?
Live interaction, applied tasks, and timely formative feedback sustained perceived quality. Students valued lecturers who adapted pedagogy rather than simply uploading recorded lectures. Rapid cycles of pulse surveys and text analysis showed where delivery felt passive, enabling staff to pilot interactive alternatives. Assessment quality remained under scrutiny: feedback appears more frequently in business and management than the sector average and carries a mildly negative tone (see our sentiment analysis guide for UK universities for interpretation and common failure modes). This reinforces the need to make criteria transparent and feedback actionable.
How did group work and collaboration evolve?
Teamwork moved into breakout rooms and shared workspaces. Staff standardised group formation, role clarity, and contribution tracking, and aligned peer‑interaction aims with assessment briefs (see best practice for assessing group work fairly). Training on collaboration tools and norms reduced friction. Where students reported uneven participation or misaligned expectations, programmes introduced light‑touch checkpoint artefacts and short reflection notes to evidence the process as well as the product.
How did students judge value for money?
Perceptions of value rested on continuity, clarity, and access. Loss of physical spaces and networking opportunities heightened scrutiny of resource provision and the perceived relevance of activities to career goals. Providers expanded digital library access, brokered employer‑led virtual events and mentoring, and mapped learning outcomes to assessment briefs so students could see coherence across modules.
What positive experiences stood out?
Flexibility to fit study around work and care responsibilities, the ability to replay content, and stronger digital fluency emerged as substantive gains. Student support and wider student life features remained strong in business schools, with careers input and personal development particularly valued when linked to authentic tasks and alumni networks. Many students reported increased resilience, adaptability, and confidence using collaborative platforms now common in the workplace.
What should providers carry forward?
- Keep disruption‑ready playbooks: pre‑agreed shifts to teaching, assessment, and resources, with one authoritative update channel.
- Make assessment clarity routine: publish annotated exemplars, checklist‑style rubrics, and consistent turnaround standards. This responds directly to the prominence of Feedback (10.6%) and the strongly negative tone around Marking criteria (−46.5).
- Protect operational strengths: predictable timetabling, single locations for core information, and a regular cadence for updates.
- Design collaboration deliberately: specify roles, contribution logs, and peer‑assessment mechanisms to reduce friction in group work.
- Target support to cohorts most likely to be negative during disruption, and make reasonable adjustments explicit when arrangements change.
How Student Voice Analytics helps you
Student Voice Analytics turns open‑text into shared priorities for business and management during and after COVID‑19. Track the COVID‑19 topic over time, compare sentiment within business and management against the wider sector, and see where assessment clarity, remote learning, and collaboration drive tone. Drill down from institution to school, programme, and cohort, segment by mode and demographic, and export concise briefings for programme and quality teams. This helps you evidence improvement and prioritise the fixes with the highest impact. Explore Student Voice Analytics.
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