Transformation variables in higher education: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The higher education sector faced increasingly tense to transform due to the digitization that reshapes the world in the 21st century to strengthen and improve the teaching and learning environment. The present critical success factors driven by global-profit-making reform institutions are affected by both external and internal issues. This systematic article review expounds on the instrumental transformation variables that influence higher education institutions globally. The exploration of these variables is not a new phenomenon in this research field and has long gained numerous scholars' attention. However, most of these past inquiries overlooked the effects of cultural and contextual components, where the higher education landscape perspectives are often underrepresented. Hence, this study aims to fill this gap by critically reviewing a considerable amount of past studies on the changes in Asian educational institutions. The Systematic Review approach was adopted for data analysis, accessing main journal databases and search engines through Elsevier, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Scopus, Emerald and EBSCO. The search efforts resulted in a corpus of 33 articles were reviewed. As a result of the thematic analyses, eight main themes were formulated namely, Globalization, Income Generation and Financial Implication, Institutional Policies, Knowledge Management, Learning Innovation, Governance in Institutional Restructuring, Synergy, and Leadership as dominant variables for the higher education sector. Several recommendations were also presented for the reference of relevant parties and future scholars.