Student Voice Analytics for Management Studies — UK student feedback 2018–2025

Scope. UK NSS open-text comments for Management Studies (CAH17-01-04) students across academic years 2018–2025.
Volume. ~4,574 comments; 96.8% successfully categorised to a single primary topic.
Overall mood. Roughly 53.0% Positive, 42.7% Negative, 4.3% Neutral (positive:negative ≈ 1.24:1).

What students are saying

The conversation in Management Studies is led by Assessment & Feedback. Feedback is the single largest topic (≈9.6% share) and carries a clearly negative tone (sentiment index −18.1), a little below sector for the same topic. Related categories—Assessment methods (3.4%, −24.5) and Marking criteria (3.3%, −48.4)—reinforce the picture: students want clearer expectations, transparent criteria, and feedback they can act on.

Curriculum design and choice are also prominent and generally well-received. Type and breadth of course content (7.0%, +15.9) and Module choice/variety (6.3%, +16.6) trend positive and are discussed more than sector averages. One counterpoint is Opportunities to work with other students (4.9%, −9.9), where tone dips, suggesting the mechanics of group work and collaboration often frustrate students.

People and growth themes are consistently strong. Students speak warmly about Teaching Staff (5.8%, +36.3) and Student support (4.7%, +15.3). Career guidance, support stands out (4.7%, +41.1), well above sector on both presence and tone, and Personal Tutor (2.7%, +25.1) and Student life (3.8%, +37.3) add to the positive picture. Personal development, though a smaller topic by volume (2.0%), is the most positive category overall (+67.7).

Operational delivery topics are smaller by share than in many disciplines but show specific pressure points. Scheduling/timetabling (2.7%, −27.3) is notably negative; Remote learning (2.3%, −11.5) is also net negative. Organisation and management of course is closer to neutral (2.5%, −2.9), and Communication about course and teaching—though a low‑volume topic (1.4%)—leans negative. Placements/fieldwork are relatively rare in this subject (1.2%, well below sector) and, when mentioned, are positive on balance. Year abroad (1.1%, +43.2) is a small but strongly positive feature. As elsewhere, Costs/Value for money (1.7%, −57.1) attracts strong dissatisfaction.

Top categories by share (management vs sector):

Category	Section	Share %	Sector %	Δ pp	Sentiment idx	Δ vs sector
Feedback	Assessment and feedback	9.6	7.3	+2.2	−18.1	−3.1
Type and breadth of course content	Learning opportunities	7.0	6.9	+0.1	+15.9	−6.7
Module choice / variety	Learning opportunities	6.3	4.2	+2.2	+16.6	−0.8
Teaching Staff	The teaching on my course	5.8	6.7	−1.0	+36.3	+0.8
Delivery of teaching	The teaching on my course	5.7	5.4	+0.3	+6.9	−1.9
Opportunities to work with other students	Learning community	4.9	2.0	+2.9	−9.9	−10.9
Student support	Academic support	4.7	6.2	−1.5	+15.3	+2.1
Career guidance, support	Learning community	4.7	2.4	+2.3	+41.1	+11.0
Student life	Learning community	3.8	3.2	+0.6	+37.3	+5.2
Assessment methods	Assessment and feedback	3.4	3.0	+0.4	−24.5	−0.8

Most negative categories (share ≥ 2%)

Category	Section	Share %	Sector %	Δ pp	Sentiment idx	Δ vs sector
Marking criteria	Assessment and feedback	3.3	3.5	−0.3	−48.4	−2.7
COVID-19	Others	2.2	3.3	−1.1	−41.9	−8.9
Scheduling/ timetabling	Organisation and management	2.7	2.9	−0.2	−27.3	−10.8
Assessment methods	Assessment and feedback	3.4	3.0	+0.4	−24.5	−0.8
Feedback	Assessment and feedback	9.6	7.3	+2.2	−18.1	−3.1
Remote learning	The teaching on my course	2.3	3.5	−1.2	−11.5	−2.5
Opportunities to work with other students	Learning community	4.9	2.0	+2.9	−9.9	−10.9

Shares are the proportion of all Management Studies comments whose primary topic is the category. Sentiment index ranges from −100 (more negative than positive) to +100 (more positive than negative).

Most positive categories (share ≥ 2%)

Category	Section	Share %	Sector %	Δ pp	Sentiment idx	Δ vs sector
Personal development	Learning community	2.0	2.5	−0.4	+67.7	+7.9
Career guidance, support	Learning community	4.7	2.4	+2.3	+41.1	+11.0
Student life	Learning community	3.8	3.2	+0.6	+37.3	+5.2
Teaching Staff	Teaching	5.8	6.7	−1.0	+36.3	+0.8
Learning resources	Learning resources	3.1	3.8	−0.7	+28.9	+7.5
Personal Tutor	Academic support	2.7	3.2	−0.4	+25.1	+6.4
Module choice / variety	Learning opportunities	6.3	4.2	+2.2	+16.6	−0.8

What this means in practice

Make assessment clarity the first fix. Publish annotated exemplars, checklist‑style rubrics and marking guides; calibrate expectations across markers; and set realistic, visible service levels for feedback. These moves directly target the largest and most negative topics (Feedback, Marking criteria, Assessment methods).
Strengthen collaboration scaffolding. Where working with other students is central, use clear task designs with milestones, contribution tracking (e.g., light peer‑assessment or group contracts), and conflict‑resolution routes. This reduces friction without adding heavy process.
Improve the operational rhythm around time and place. A single source of truth for timetables, named ownership for changes, and short “what changed and why” updates help stabilise Scheduling and course Communications. Keep Remote learning expectations explicit when used.
Double down on what is working. Maintain the visibility and accessibility of Teaching Staff and support teams; continue employer‑facing and alumni activity that underpins strong Career guidance; and showcase Year abroad or live‑project opportunities that students rate highly.

Data at a glance (2018–2025)

Top topics by share are stable across the period: Feedback (≈9.6%), Type and breadth of course content (≈7.0%), Module choice/variety (≈6.3%), Teaching Staff (≈5.8%), Delivery of teaching (≈5.7%).
Cluster shares:
- Assessment & feedback cluster (Feedback, Assessment methods, Marking criteria, Dissertation): ≈16.9% of all comments, with mixed-to-negative tone.
- People & growth cluster (Teaching Staff, Delivery of teaching, Student support, Personal Tutor, Student life, Personal development, Availability of teaching staff): ≈26.2%, strongly positive overall.
- Delivery & ops cluster (Placements/fieldwork, Scheduling, Organisation & management, Communication about course and teaching, Remote learning): ≈10.1%, smaller by volume but with clear pain points in Scheduling and Remote learning.
Several topics are under- or over-discussed relative to sector: Opportunities to work with other students (+2.9 pp), Career guidance (+2.3 pp) and Module choice (+2.2 pp) are more prominent here; Placements/fieldwork (−2.3 pp) and Student support (−1.5 pp) are less so.
How to read the numbers. Each comment is assigned one primary topic; share is that topic’s proportion of all comments. Sentiment is calculated per sentence and summarised as an index from −100 (more negative than positive) to +100 (more positive than negative), then averaged at category level.

How Student Voice Analytics helps you

Student Voice Analytics turns open‑text survey comments into clear, prioritised actions. It tracks topics, sentiment and movement by year so you can see which categories are driving the experience and where tone is shifting.

It supports whole‑institution overviews as well as fine‑grained analysis at faculty, school, and programme levels. You get concise, anonymised theme summaries and representative comments to brief programme teams and external partners without trawling thousands of responses.

Critically, it enables like‑for‑like sector comparisons across CAH codes and by demographics (e.g., year of study, domicile, mode of study, campus/site, commuter status). You can segment by site/provider, cohort and year to target interventions where they will move sentiment most. Export‑ready outputs (for web, slide deck or dashboard) make it straightforward to share priorities and progress across the institution.