Higher Education and Sustainable Development: A Literature Analysis and Conceptual Overview

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors employ bibliometric, co-word, and thematic analyses to explore the scientific intersection between higher education (HE) and sustainable development (SD). In particular, the authors analyze a dataset of 215 articles extracted through the Scopus database to understand how the literature debates sustainability and HE. After providing a detailed description of the methodology employed, the authors perform a descriptive and thematic analysis of the dataset. The authors outline general information about the database, the formula applied to search for the results, and the methods used to polish the dataset. The authors then determine the number of publications per year and the number of papers per journal; consider the most used keywords; and build a thematic map based on the co-occurrence network. Lastly, the authors discuss the results and the limitations of our work, providing some indications for future research opportunities.

Citation

Pizzolitto, E., Za, S. and Antonucci, G. (2023), "Higher Education and Sustainable Development: A Literature Analysis and Conceptual Overview", Caporarello, L., Kumar, P. and Agrawal, A. (Ed.) Higher Education for the Sustainable Development Goals: Bridging the Global North and South, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 39-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-525-020231003