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Open research questions in Higher Education Governance and Development

1,381 gap statements mined from Higher Education Governance and Development papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 21,033 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Significant implementation challenges are found in public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Gaps are found in areas like transnational education programs and open and distance learning. The study identifies the need for a more expansive model of internationalization.

    Strategic Alignment and Implementation Gaps in Higher Education Internationalization: A Case Analysis of a Philippine State University · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research could investigate the mechanisms by which brokerage roles influence research performance. Additional studies could examine the impact of national network environments on university research performance.

    University Brokerage Roles in the Global Scientific Mobility System and Research Performance: Role Heterogeneity and the National Network Environment · 2026 · DOI

  • Existing studies have mainly examined university positions in scientific mobility networks through inflows, outflows, and general centrality, paying less attention to brokerage roles. The study aims to fill this gap by examining how universities occupy differentiated brokerage roles and how these roles are associated with research performance.

    University Brokerage Roles in the Global Scientific Mobility System and Research Performance: Role Heterogeneity and the National Network Environment · 2026 · DOI

  • The study notes the importance of transparency and accountability in institutional decision-making, which can be limited by the lack of interpretability in ML models. The study addresses the challenge of identifying and quantifying each financial indicator's contribution to model predictions using XAI techniques.

    XAI for Financial Sustainability Assessment and Prediction in Higher Education Institutions · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could explore the application of the framework to other industries. Future research could investigate the use of other machine-learning algorithms. Future research could examine the impact of different contamination levels on the anomaly detection.

    XAI for Financial Sustainability Assessment and Prediction in Higher Education Institutions · 2026 · DOI

  • The need to address the complexity of the university-society interaction and the third mission of the university.

    Reflections on Knowledge Production in Humanities from an Academic Exchange Experience · 2024 · DOI

  • The lack of exploration of the links between knowledge production in humanities and its links with society. The need to overcome the agency-structure tension in the debates on the epistemology of knowledge.

    Reflections on Knowledge Production in Humanities from an Academic Exchange Experience · 2024 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need for strengthening leadership, supplying adequate educational resources, and improving service delivery. The study identifies a gap in the literature regarding the impact of low investment on the sustainability of the higher education system.

    Overview of Ethiopian Public Higher Education: Trends, System, Challenges, and Quality Issues · 2024 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need for improvement in the quality of staff and infrastructure. The study notes the importance of creating equal conditions for admission and study for people of different social groups.

    Quality Assurance System of Higher Education in Kazakhstan Through Stakeholders’ Eyes: An Empirical Study to Identify Its Challenges · 2024 · DOI

  • The lack of understanding of organizational dynamics and aligning initiatives with institutional goals. The need to investigate the complexities and challenges associated with mission-driven innovation in higher education. The gap in providing insights for institutions implementing similar strategies.

    Middle Management Leadership Experiences of a Mission-Driven Innovation University Strategy · 2024 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need to analyze the organizational identities, discourses, and practices of these universities.

    Institutional Ethos of Less Selective Massive Private Universities in Chile: Organizational Identities in a Competitive and Marketized University System · 2024 · DOI

  • Research on Private IslamicHhigher Education Institutions (PHEI) has examined accountability and education financing in relation to financial management and institutional performance, but their relationships with competitive advantage remain insufficiently understood.

    MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTABILITY, EDUCATION FINANCING, AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF PRIVATE ISLAMIC HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDONESIA · 2026 · DOI

  • There is also a focus on the hourly rates for casual staff, with limited information on appropriate workload for ongoing staff.

    A comparative policy analysis of Australian higher education institutions’ definitions of marking · 2025 · DOI

  • Purposeful deskilling toward more stable employment that is disconnected from their previous educational and career accomplishments is a costly alternative in a situation of limited information and high uncertainty.

    Doubly precarious immigrant academics: professional identities and work integration of a highly skilled precariat in Canadian higher education · 2024 · DOI

  • Despite the increase in sessional employment, little is known about the experience of sessional academics regarding support and processes for integrating them into university structures.

    What are the facilitators and barriers experienced by sessional academics during the process of onboarding: a scoping review · 2024 · DOI

  • The study suggests that future research should investigate the specific needs of student migrants from different cultural backgrounds. The study highlights the need for further research on the role of subjective wellbeing and social capital in adaptation.

    Indian STEM student migrants’ practices in Kazakhstan: a mixed-methods study · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on the adaptation of student migrants in newer higher education hubs in the Global South. The study seeks to address this gap by exploring the practices of Indian student migrants undertaking STEM degrees in Kazakhstan.

    Indian STEM student migrants’ practices in Kazakhstan: a mixed-methods study · 2026 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need to consider the perspectives of internal stakeholders in university mergers.

    Conflicts Revealing Power, Politics and Identities in a Finnish University Merger · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could explore the implications of postliberal governance reforms for academic professionals and higher education institutions in other states and contexts. Future research could also examine the impact of state control on academic freedom and shared governance in different fields and disciplines.

    Establishing Postliberal Goals: Professional Authority and Partisan Control in Indiana · 2026 · DOI

  • The research highlights the need to consider ideological values in human resource governance. The study acknowledges the challenge of applying a multi-polar governance model to a large and geographically dispersed higher education network.

    Hybrid Governance of Religious-Based Higher Education with Limited Autonomy and Dual Meritocracy of the University of Muhammadiyah in Indonesia · 2026 · DOI

  • The research highlights the need for a multi-polar governance model that integrates academic excellence with organizational identity. The study acknowledges the lack of research on the tension between academic autonomy and centralized ideological control.

    Hybrid Governance of Religious-Based Higher Education with Limited Autonomy and Dual Meritocracy of the University of Muhammadiyah in Indonesia · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should consider the ways in which alternative gauges of value can be used to contest the dominant economic orientation. The paper suggests that further analysis of the impact of economic productivity on higher education is needed.

    The Contested Value of Higher Education · 2026 · DOI

  • Although a wealth of literature documenting the experiences of faculty on the tenure-track as it relates to the promotion and tenure process exists, sparse research has investigated how tenured and tenure-track faculty are influenced and inspired to produce public scholarship, scholarship for audiences beyond academia.

    Personal identity, public intellect: how faculty members’ identities influence and inspire public scholarship · 2025 · DOI

  • Further research could explore the design and implementation of future higher education strategies…

    Middle Management Leadership Experiences of a Mission-Driven Innovation University Strategy · 2024 · DOI

  • The current state of higher education often prioritizes knowledge and credentials over formation, - There is a need for a new perspective on formative higher…

    Review of Undeclared: A Philosophy of Formative Higher Education, by Chris Higgins · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Higher Education Governance and Development

Most recent work

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Further research could investigate the mechanisms by which brokerage roles influence research performance (“University Brokerage Roles in the Global Scientific Mobility System and…”, 2026); (2) The study notes the importance of transparency and accountability in institutional decision-making, which can be limited by the lack of interpretability in ML models (“XAI for Financial Sustainability Assessment and Prediction in Higher Education…”, 2026); (3) The study suggests that future research should investigate the specific needs of student migrants from different cultural backgrounds (“Indian STEM student migrants’ practices in Kazakhstan: a mixed-methods study”, 2026); (4) Future research could explore the implications of postliberal governance reforms for academic professionals and higher education institutions in other states and contexts (“Establishing Postliberal Goals: Professional Authority and Partisan Control in…”, 2026); (5) The study acknowledges the lack of research on the tension between academic autonomy and centralized ideological control (“Hybrid Governance of Religious-Based Higher Education with Limited Autonomy and…”, 2026). 1,381 gap statements have been mined from Higher Education Governance and Development papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 21,033 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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