How do strikes affect students in English Studies?
Strikes reduce learning continuity, delay feedback and undermine assessment confidence for English Studies students. In the National Student Survey (NSS), 92.3% of comments about strike action are negative, the sentiment index sits at −57.1 across 6,683 comments, and most come from full-time cohorts (95.3%). As a cross-sector issue, strike action cuts across subjects, while English studies (non-specific) groups literature and language programmes across providers. Although discipline-level rows are not available in this extract, the sector pattern points to what works in English Studies: protect seminars and supervision, stabilise assessments, and communicate precisely.
At the heart of the UK's higher education sector, English Studies weaves together literature, language, and culture. The field develops analytical and creative capacities but faces disruptions from industrial action across universities. These disputes over pay, conditions and policy affect delivery, staff availability and student outcomes by restricting access to guidance and delaying curriculum progress. Incorporating student voice through surveys and analysing open-text feedback helps departments understand the impact on academic experience and wellbeing, and to target mitigations.
How does industrial action disrupt curriculum and academic expectations?
The curriculum in English Studies relies on seminar discussion, timely feedback and iterative drafting. When staff withdraw labour, delivery halts and critical discussions pause, creating gaps that accumulate across modules. Some students increase independent study, but the absence of structured guidance and feedback can hinder development. Departments should pre-plan catch-up windows and alternative activities so students know how lost learning will be recovered, map lost teaching hours to recovery actions per module, and make these plans visible. Use digital platforms to host reading groups, asynchronous forums and recorded mini-lectures that sustain momentum during disruption.
How do strikes affect access to literary resources?
Access to broad literary collections and specialist archives is central to study. Industrial action can limit library and archival services, slowing research and compromising project quality. Enhance the availability of digital resources and remote access to databases, and maintain a single, up-to-date source of truth on what is affected, what is unchanged, and what mitigation exists. Expand digitisation and reading list substitutes to cover fragile or restricted materials. Address digital equity through device loans, off-campus access support and short guides so all students can use platforms effectively.
How should student support and guidance adapt during strikes?
Targeted support often narrows when staff participation reduces. Maintain continuity through peer mentoring, online advising, and drop-in academic skills sessions. Track student-reported issues, publish closure rates and time-to-resolution, and keep deadline and marking timelines transparent. Involve student reps in contingency design to align provision with needs while sustaining personalisation.
How can programmes balance critical analysis and creative practice when teaching is disrupted?
In English Studies, the interplay between critical analysis and creative expression depends on dialogue and iterative feedback. During strikes, digital tools can sustain workshops and discussions, while online forums support collaborative critique. Short online masterclasses and text-analysis tools provide partial feedback on critical writing when staff input is limited. These steps help preserve progression in both analytical and creative components.
How should programmes manage exam and assessment pressures during action?
Strikes heighten stress around assessments that require close reading and theory application. Stabilise assessments with clear deadline policies, explicit marking timelines and, where needed, alternative formats that preserve learning outcomes. Extend submission windows where teaching time is lost, deploy formative checkpoints to reduce high stakes, and publish weekly updates on what changed, why and next steps.
What are the employability implications for English Studies students?
Delays to progression, feedback and references can affect immediate employability despite graduates’ strong analytical and communication skills. Provide virtual careers guidance, online employer events, and clear timelines for transcripts and references. Keep students informed about recovery plans so they can communicate reliably with employers and placement providers.
What should departments do next?
Given how consistently negative NSS comments are on strikes (sentiment index −57.1) and that younger students account for 91.8% of these comments, prioritise mitigation for large, full-time undergraduate cohorts. Protect learning and assessment continuity, keep communications precise and frequent, and make mitigation activity visible and trackable by module and programme. These steps reduce disruption in English Studies, even when discipline-level comment data are unavailable in this extract.
How Student Voice Analytics helps you
- Quantifies strike-related topics and sentiment across cohorts, with drill-downs from provider to school and programme in English Studies.
- Surfaces segment-level patterns by CAH code and demographics to target mitigation at full-time, younger cohorts where volume is highest.
- Produces concise, anonymised summaries for programme teams, unions and committees, with export-ready tables for governance papers.
- Tracks issues, recovery actions and turnaround so departments can evidence progress and close the loop with students.
Request a walkthrough
Book a Student Voice Analytics demo
See all-comment coverage, sector benchmarks, and governance packs designed for OfS quality and NSS requirements.
- All-comment coverage with HE-tuned taxonomy and sentiment.
- Versioned outputs with TEF-ready governance packs.
- Benchmarks and BI-ready exports for boards and Senate.
More posts on strike action:
- Do strikes disrupt psychology students’ learning, research and wellbeing?
- What do sociology students say about strike action?
- How do human geography students experience strike action in UK higher education?
- How are university strikes affecting law students?