Global Literature on Higher Education: A Bibliometric Analysis of Top 15 Journals

There has been a significant increase in the number of studies on higher education over the years. Higher education research has changed in terms of quantity and quality over time. However, there is a lack of a holistic study on higher education research. The purpose of this research study is to examine the higher education literature holistically based on the top 15 journals addressing higher education, to examine the contribution to the field on the basis of a particular journal, institution and country, and to discover the patterns of the higher education literature. For this purpose, bibliometric analysis was carried out with 19685 publications obtained from the Web of Science covering the years 1956-2022. According to the findings of the study, higher education literature has shown a growth trend. This growth has accelerated significantly in the last two decades. The largest contribution to the literature was made by the “Journal of College Student Development”. In the higher education literature, the USA has pulled ahead of 120 countries demonstrated by a significant margin and has become the dominant of the higher education literature. The main themes of higher education literature are (1) assessment, (2) internationalization, (3) equity and social justice, (4) university, and (5) pedagogy/academic writing/curriculum. The countries with the most collaboration among 120 countries are USA, UK, and Australia, respectively. This study has provided a comprehensive perspective on the field by addressing the higher education research with long-term data. By revealing the structure of existing knowledge, it has prepared the ground for future research directions.