---
title: "Higher education research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “higher education” appeared in 1,044 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (528), economics (175) and management (168)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/higher-education
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/higher-education.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “higher education” appeared in 1,044 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (528), economics (175) and management (168). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “higher education”

Research on “higher education” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “higher education” appeared in 1,044 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (528), economics (175) and management (168).
- 138 of them were published in 2025, against 66 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Beijing Normal University (9), Zhejiang University (8) and Education University of Hong Kong (7).
- The journals publishing most of them were International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education (62), Computers and Education Artificial Intelligence (60) and The International Journal of Management Education (51).
- The most-cited of them is “Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators?” (International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2019), with 7,197 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 37 | 25 | 29 | 50 | 51 | 56 | 54 | 80 | 72 | 74 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 5 | 18 | 20 | 15 | 13 | 18 | 22 | 23 | 22 | 19 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 8 | 4 | 10 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 20 | 27 | 20 | 27 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 11 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 66 | 60 | 73 | 99 | 100 | 107 | 107 | 152 | 138 | 142 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 62 |
| 2 | [Computers and Education Artificial Intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-and-education-artificial-intelligence.md) | 60 |
| 3 | [The International Journal of Management Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-international-journal-of-management-education.md) | 51 |
| 4 | [Innovative Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/innovative-higher-education.md) | 37 |
| 5 | [Journal of Computing in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-computing-in-higher-education.md) | 36 |
| 6 | [International Journal of Educational Development](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-development.md) | 25 |
| 7 | [Studies In Educational Evaluation](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/studies-in-educational-evaluation.md) | 12 |
| 8 | [AI & Society](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ai-society.md) | 12 |
| 9 | [The Internet and Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-internet-and-higher-education.md) | 12 |
| 10 | [Journal of Hospitality Leisure Sport & Tourism Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-hospitality-leisure-sport-tourism-education.md) | 9 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Beijing Normal University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beijing-normal-university.md) | 9 |
| 2 | [Zhejiang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhejiang-university.md) | 8 |
| 3 | [Education University of Hong Kong](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/education-university-of-hong-kong.md) | 7 |
| 4 | [IZA - Institute of Labor Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/iza-institute-of-labor-economics.md) | 7 |
| 5 | [Arizona State University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/arizona-state-university.md) | 6 |
| 6 | The Open University | 6 |
| 7 | [University College London](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-college-london.md) | 6 |
| 8 | [Central China Normal University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-china-normal-university.md) | 5 |
| 9 | [Chinese University of Hong Kong](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/chinese-university-of-hong-kong.md) | 5 |
| 10 | [Monash University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/monash-university.md) | 5 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | United States | 119 |
| 2 | China | 75 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 55 |
| 4 | Germany | 46 |
| 5 | Australia | 43 |
| 6 | Spain | 43 |
| 7 | Italy | 26 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 20 |
| 9 | Hong Kong | 19 |
| 10 | Malaysia | 16 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [generative AI](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/generative-ai.md) | 63 |
| 2 | [online learning](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/online-learning.md) | 41 |
| 3 | [university students](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/university-students.md) | 41 |
| 4 | [COVID-19 pandemic](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/covid-19-pandemic.md) | 34 |
| 5 | [artificial intelligence in education](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/artificial-intelligence-in-education.md) | 30 |
| 6 | [ChatGPT](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chatgpt.md) | 29 |
| 7 | [student engagement](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-engagement.md) | 27 |
| 8 | [academic performance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/academic-performance.md) | 26 |
| 9 | [gender differences](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/gender-differences.md) | 25 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7,197 | 85.4 | [Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators?](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0171-0) | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 2019-10-27 | Olaf Zawacki‐Richter, Victoria I. Marín, Melissa Bond et al. |
| 2 | 2,525 | 63.7 | [Students’ voices on generative AI: perceptions, benefits, and challenges in higher education](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00411-8) | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 2023-07-16 | Cecilia Ka Yuk Chan, Wenjie Hu |
| 3 | 2,021 | 26.3 | [Effects of COVID-19 on business and research](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.008) | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 2020-06-08 | Naveen Donthu, Anders Gustafsson |
| 4 | 1,452 | 12.5 | [Gamifying education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0042-5) | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 2017-02-20 | Christo Dichev, Darina Dicheva |
| 5 | 1,252 | 11.8 | [Blended learning: the new normal and emerging technologies](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0087-5) | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 2018-01-09 | Charles D. Dziuban, Charles R. Graham, Patsy D. Moskal et al. |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “higher education”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/higher-education

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-higher-education,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “higher education”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/higher-education}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).