Prevailing Themes and Future Research Agendas in Higher Education: A Systematic Scoping Review of Reviews (2024-2025)

Introduction: The existing scholarship related to higher education, while extensive, lacks comprehensive analyses of prevailing research themes. Numerous reviews provide detailed charts of niche topics, yet they fall short of offering a comprehensive overview. To accurately chart the major tendencies within the broader field of higher education, our analysis includes all review types, arguing that they collectively provide a more complete picture and reveal the field’s dominant themes. Purpose: To provide a high-level synthesis of the current scholarly landscape by analyzing the primary themes and recommended research agendas outlined in secondary literature, including systematic, scoping, bibliometric, and conceptual reviews. Method: We employed a systematic scoping review methodology to map the breadth of literature. The review questions were formulated using the PCC (Problem, Concept, Context) framework to ensure a comprehensive scope. The conduct and reporting of this review followed the guidelines outlined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). 128 reviews of diverse types published in 2024-2025 were selected from the Scopus database. The included reviews were based on publications within the timeframe from 2010 to 2025. Results: This systematic scoping review reveals that systematic reviews (55%) constitute the dominant methodological approach in higher education research, followed by bibliometric (12%) and scoping reviews (9%). The analysis identifies eight prevailing thematic clusters that directly inform future research agendas, consolidating them into four synthesized directions: technology and digital transformation; curriculum and learning outcomes; equity, ethics, and education’s social role; and systemic shifts including internationalization and sustainability. Notably, the field shows concentrated emphasis on artificial intelligence integration and AI competency development, signaling a pivotal direction for future higher education research. Conclusion: This review has synthesized the current intellectual landscape of higher education to map its prevailing themes and, consequently, to define a unified research agenda. The primary implication of this work is to focus the efforts of the research community by highlighting the most pertinent and promising directions for further investigation. Although this review provides valuable insights, its findings are limited by its reliance on a single database and its restriction to English-language reviews, potentially omitting significant literature from regional or non-English sources. Therefore, we recommend future research pursue a more expansive systematic mapping with a longer time span, multiple databases, and incorporate reviews published in various languages to achieve a truly comprehensive perspective. © 2025 National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University). All rights reserved.