A glimpse into sport management education in India during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruption across the world, with the majority of sectors, organisations and businesses significantly affected by the rapid societal changes that the pandemic necessitated. Education, and higher education in particular was one such sector. Courses, subjects and curricular were rapidly integrated online, and students and academic staff were removed from university campus’ as the higher education sector worked to remain open and operational. Nevertheless, despite the shared challenges that COVID-19 presented, countries dealt with the pandemic in different ways, and therefore sectors within those countries also responded differently. Higher education provision in India was presented with situations that required fast action, such as enabling the country to utilise the available MOOC and OER provision in order to continue learning. A number of barriers to this approach existed and affected both the provision and the opportunities for an equal learning experience for students. This chapter focuses on the sport management response to COVID-19 in India, the changes to higher education, the barriers that existed and the implications for governments, universities and stakeholders.