The evolution and trends of higher education curriculum research

Curriculum is a significant part of higher education, although it has only been since the 1990s, and especially this century, that research related to curriculum has been a matter of discussion. Using scientometric analysis, we explored the growing, declining and emerging themes and topics related to higher education curriculum research and how research activities have changed over time. We searched the Web of Science database using a title, abstract and author keyword search and the terms higher education or university and curriculum . We focused our analysis on the years 2015–2024, retrieving 22,278 peer-reviewed journal articles. Data was examined using VOSviewer and CiteSpace software, and the results were presented and discussed according to the following approaches: countries, funding sources, research institutions, authors, timelines, topics of interest and influential articles. The study revealed that research output is high across the USA, Australia and England, with funding sources and research affiliations concentrated in the Global North, especially the USA. A fragmented collaboration network exists, with multiple small research clusters rather than one well-connected community. For the last decade, higher education curriculum research was influenced by a range of external factors – the COVID-19 pandemic, social change movements and the rise of artificial intelligence – with a desire to equip learners with the capabilities to thrive in, and contribute to, contemporary society. Although scientometric reviews do not explore conceptual understandings, it appears that clarity about what is meant by curriculum warrants greater consideration by scholars.