National Student Survey 2024: Results for Business and Management Studies

The Chartered ABS is pleased to present our report on the results of the 2024 National Student Survey (NSS) for the Business and Management subject area. In 2024, 169 Higher Education providers participated in the NSS for Business and Management, a decrease from 172 the previous year. This year saw 49,661 responses in the subject area, with a response rate of 73.2%, slightly above the overall average response rate of 72.6%.  

The Chartered ABS has compiled a detailed spreadsheet listing the participating institutions and their scores for each question, which can be filtered by mission group or provider region. As in previous years, our analysis is limited to first-degree graduates. 

Furthermore, our report includes a comparative analysis of the average scores for Business and Management with the average scores for all subjects. We also offer a detailed breakdown of scores at the granular subject level (CAH level 3). Our spreadsheet features shaded cells to indicate performance variations from the Office for Students (OfS) benchmark. These benchmarks are calculated uniquely for each provider and question, based on specific course and student characteristics. Detailed information on the OfS benchmark calculations is available here. 

The NSS 2024 features 25 questions grouped into 7 themes, followed by additional optional questions, covering mental wellbeing services, freedom of expression and overall satisfaction. The 'freedom of expression' question was only asked of students in England, and the 'overall satisfaction question' only for students in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. 

View the spreadsheet here

Business and Management - key findings 

Business and Management performs strongly in three themes, is marginally better in two themes and is behind in two themes  

Business and Management's performance across themes is varied when compared to the all-subject averages. Business and Management scores significantly higher than the sector average for three themes (Assessment and feedback, Organisation and management and Student voice) and lower than the average in two themes (Academic support and Teaching on my course).  

The greatest positive variation at the thematic level is seen with the 'Organisation and management' theme, where Business and Management reports a 4.8% higher average positivity measure than the all-subject average. This trend continues from the NSS 2023, however, last year’s figures reported Business and Management to have a 7.9% higher positivity score than the all-subject average. 

Business and Management students demonstrated a much higher likelihood than the average student to perceive their courses as well-organised. 

Question 17: "How well organised is your course?" shows the most significant positive difference in average positivity measures when compared to the all-subject average. Business and Management scored 81.0% compared to the all-subject average of 74.8%. This represents the largest disparity for any of the NSS questions, either positive or negative, between Business & Management and the average for all subjects. 

The feedback from Business and Management students indicate they felt stronger acknowledgement of their views by staff. 

The 'Student voice' theme reported higher average positivity measures for Business and Management students (76.6%) than their peers across all subjects overall (75.2%). This theme included three questions, with question 24, "How clear is it that students' feedback on the course is acted on?", showing the most significant difference of 4%. This suggests that Business and Management students feel their voices are more likely to be heard in shaping their course compared to their peers in other subjects. 

Business and Management surpasses sector averages in assessment and feedback 

Business and Management students appeared to find the assessment and feedback on their course slightly better than that of their peers on all other subjects, with a marginal 1.2% difference for the theme. The positivity score for question 10, “How clear were the marking criteria used to assess your work?”, is 3% higher than that of the sector average. This underscores a generally higher satisfaction with the assessment and feedback process among Business and Management students, indicating that they have a better understanding of marking criteria and are more likely to feel that the assessments offered them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learnt. 

Students perceive a better balance between directed and independent study in Business and Management 

Within the ‘Learning opportunities’ theme Business and Management students were significantly more likely to agree that their course had struck the right balance between directed and independent study, with Business and Management being 3.3% higher than the sector average. 

Business and Management's scores for 'Teaching on the course' and ‘Academic Support’ are below average. 

This year, Business and Management students reported an improvement in their ability to contact teaching staff, with the positivity score rising from 84.2% in 2023 to 85.4% in 2024, a 1.2% increase. However, the sector average increased by 4.4%, from 82.6% to 87.0%. While this reflects significant progress in academic support for Business and Management students, they still fall slightly behind the sector average. Similar to the 'Academic support' theme, the 'Teaching on my course' theme reports lower positivity scores than the sector average (-2.8%). For the question "How often is the course intellectually stimulating?", Business & Management scored 79.3%, while the all-subject average was 84.7%. This suggests a potential area for improvement in course content and delivery to enhance student engagement and satisfaction. 

NSS 2024: Performance by constituent subjects within Business & Management 

The NSS results are available for the constituent subjects within Business & Management based on the Common Aggregation Hierarchy 3 (CAH3) subject-level. This allows a more detailed assessment of students’ satisfaction with courses within the different fields of Business & Management. 

Taking the average score across the seven different themes in the 2024 NSS, the ‘Others in Business & Management’ (which includes: Systems Thinking; Office Administration and Shorthand and Shorthand Transcription) subject has the highest positivity score (85%) and Marketing the lowest (81%). However, it should be noted that the number of survey responses for the former subject is small. All the other Business & Management subjects have average satisfaction levels of between 82% and 84%, with Accounting and Tourism, Transport and Travel seeing the joint second-highest average satisfaction levels (84%).  

The only notable differences in the average positivity measures across the seven themes for the subjects within Business and Management compared to 2023 is that the score for Finance has decreased from 84% to 82%, and the score for ‘Others in Business and Management’ has increased from 74% to 85%. However, the small sample size for the latter subject is likely to lead to volatility in the results from year to year. This subject is therefore not considered in the remainder of this commentary. 

Although the positivity scores for the constituent subjects of Business and Management are strong across most of the themes, some subjects have performed better than others. For the theme ‘The teaching on my course’, Tourism, Transport and Travel had the highest score (85%), followed by Accounting and HRM (both with 84%), and Marketing had the lowest score (81%). For the ‘Learning opportunities’ theme, Tourism, Transport and Travel and HRM had the joint highest score (85% each), followed by Accounting (84%).  

Some disparity is evident in the results for the ‘Assessment and feedback’ theme, with Tourism, Transport and Travel recording an average positivity score of 84%, whilst the subjects of Business Studies (79%), Finance (79%), and Management Studies (78%) seeing lower levels of satisfaction. For the ‘Academic support’ theme, Tourism, Transport and Travel again has the highest satisfaction level, with an average of 89% of students expressing satisfaction for the questions in this theme.  In contrast, HRM and Management Studies did not perform as well for the questions in this theme, both recording a score of 85%. Accounting has the highest positivity score for the ‘Organisation and Management’ theme (84%), and Marketing the lowest (79%).  

As with the results in 2023, ‘Student Voice’ is the only theme in which none of the Business and Management subjects recorded a positivity score of 80% or greater. For this theme Tourism, Transport and Travel again saw the highest levels of satisfaction (79%).