Bloomsbury Institute Students Talk About The Big Issues
The final issue of the Bloomsbury Institute Working Paper Series comes at a very difficult time of lockdowns, apathy, and uncertainty among both students and staff, as well as other concerns around social mixing, “social distancing” and changes in shopping patterns.
To set the context, which I labelled “The Big Issues – Food, Clothing and Shelter: An Introduction,” I provide a brief summary of what students researched for their end-of-year projects.
These range from migrant workers in UK farms to online shopping behaviour, which seems to be a popular topic for students in recent years.
In this issue, five contributions from the undergraduate student projects are a clear demonstration of the level of support they have received even in the face of the crisis. Topics range from food production to fashion consumption and developments in the recruitment processes – all taken from a UK perspective. In the UK, retail has undergone significant shifts to connect the digital and physical worlds seamlessly. The efficacy, and immediacy, of online shopping has cultivated a desire among consumers for similar experiences in-store, with the added value of human interaction.
Highlight
One if the contributions, focuses on recent developments in the UK agricultural sector by exploring the quality of management of migrant workers, which constitutes a large share of the available workforce. Drawing upon a sample of 45 migrant workers, the study finds the lack of consistent human resource management policies. It also identifies choke points including discrimination of part-time workers, and precarious working conditions.
Takeaways
Rather than priming them, students (especially undergraduates) should be encouraged, and supported, to select topics that matter most to them, as part of their research projects. An illustrative case in point was this study, “Management education trends and gaps — A case study of a community education provision in London (UK),” which has now been published in a peer reviewed journal.
Besides, and as 2020 draws to a close, some potential topics for students and their academic mentors/ supervisors may be to explore the impacts and/ or implications for food and fashion supply chains. A notable test for a “no deal” post-Brexit environment has already been witnessed along the Dover-Calais crossing prompted by the “mutant” Covid strain.
What are the business implications of supply chain disruptions? How is the food security and human resource management practices shaping up for 2021? What lessons have we learnt from the “double whammy” of 2020 — i.e. Covid19 and Brexit?
