Purpose This study offers an institution-wide and multilevel synthesis of the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on higher education institutions (HEIs), explicitly integrating managerial, pedagogical, professional, ethical and emerging cultural-cognitive dimensions, proposing a more holistic analytical framework that captures systemic, behavioral and sociocultural transformations in higher education. Design/methodology/approach The review adopted an exploratory-descriptive systematic literature review design to identify, classify and synthesize evidence on the strategic, pedagogical, technological and ethical implications of AI implementation in HEIs. Findings For higher education leaders and policymakers, the findings suggest at least three actionable priorities: (1) the establishment of institutional AI governance frameworks and ethical guidelines; (2) systematic faculty training in AI literacy and academic integrity; and (3) the integration of AI into pedagogical strategies while safeguarding equity, privacy and transparency. Research limitations/implications The lack of research on its role in the community and its relationship with other HEIs characterizes the limitation of the study. Practical implications Higher education administrators need to understand the emerging landscape with the advent of AI. Administrators are increasingly required to manage information governance and its implications. Social implications This new reality offers countless possibilities for the emergence of a more inclusive education, enabling full and disruptive development. Originality/value This study offers a multifaceted view of the impacts of AI on HEIs, guiding administrators in managing disruptive environments.

This article examines recent advances in the assessment and assurance of e-learning quality in higher education (HE) through a comprehensive review supported by a large-scale bibliometric analysis of 34,325 publications (2015-2025). The study identifies major scientific trends, including the expansion of blended and digital learning models, and the growing emphasis on learner engagement and institutional performance. Using lexical analysis and topic modeling, the review highlights the multidimensional nature of e-learning quality, spanning pedagogical, technological, organizational, and human factors. Established and emerging frameworks are analyzed alongside international standards. The findings reveal persistent challenges, including the lack of universal standards and the gap between technological innovation and quality assurance practices. The article concludes by advocating for hybrid, adaptive, and learner-centered quality models capable of supporting sustainable digital transformation in higher education. Received: December 13, 2025Revised: March 7, 2026Accepted: March 21, 2026

The role of online communities of practice in developing blended teaching knowledge and practice during a digital transformation in higher education

This article examines the "onlife" paradigm as a fundamental transformation in highereducation, where boundaries between digital and physical realitiesblur. Using conceptual analysis, thestudy explores this shift across five dimensions: organizational, pedagogical, epistemological, social-psychological, and cultural. Findings reveal that onlife education requires transitioning from rigiduniversity models to flexible ecosystems, redefining teachers as architects of learning environments, andreconceptualizing knowledge as a dynamic, co-constructed process. Digital technologies serve ascatalysts that enhance traditional values– accessibility, quality, critical thinking– rather than being endsin themselves. Key challenges include maintaining academic depth, ensuring digital equity, andpreserving education's human dimension. The conclusion emphasizes that successful implementationdemands a holistic strategy harmonizing technological modernization with renewed pedagogy, teacherdevelopment, and academic culture. This positions universities as crucial nodes in global knowledgenetworks for lifelong learning, moving beyond simple digital tool integration to a complete educationalecosystem restructuring.

This essay analyzes the tensions that shape the contemporary university, with particular emphasis on the effects of the commodification of higher education. Through a historical and conceptual approach, it examines how the academic degree operates simultaneously as technical qualification and as a mechanism of symbolic distinction, within the transformation of higher education from a social right into a marketable service, intensified since the 1970s by neoliberal policies. Drawing on authors such as Pereira, Chauí, Morley, Barnett, Buarque, Nóvoa, and Eco, the text problematizes current disputes over the meaning of university education, questioning whether its critical vocation can be preserved amid pressures for immediate employability and instrumental innovation. It concludes that the university diploma remains contested between market credential and critical formation.

Traditional predictors of academic success, such as high school GPA and standardized test scores, offer an incomplete picture of student potential. Increasing evidence highlights the importance of noncognitive skills such as self-direction in learning, emotional intelligence, and growth mindset in supporting academic persistence and overall well-being. In this article, we introduce the Students Together Reaching Individual Developmental and Educational Success (STRIDES) program, an innovative equine-assisted learning (EAL) model designed to foreground these abilities in first-year students. Unlike traditional classroom settings, STRIDES engages students in relational, experiential learning with horses, who as nonverbal, prey animals are highly attuned partners responding to authenticity, consistency, and trust. Through guided activities and structured reflectiion, students cultivate self-awareness and noncognitive abilities, translating these relational insights into academic and personal growth. Grounded in adult learning theory and a pedagogy of partnership, the program reframes learning as an inherently relational process that values presence over performance and connection over compliance. Findings and reflections from STRIDES invite educators and policymakers to reimagine student success frameworks—recognizing noncognitive development not as peripheral “soft skills,” but as foundational to learning, belonging, and transformation in higher education.

ABSTRACT This paper examines how student-staff partnerships (SSPs) may operate as counterforces to toxic leadership within a South African university. Drawing on qualitative interviews with ten academics and ten students, the study conceptualises toxic leadership as a systemic and relational phenomenon sustained through authoritarian governance, favouritism, emotional harm, and constrained agency. Informed by the Toxic Triangle framework, scholarship on SSPs, and decolonial perspectives, the analysis foregrounds how power, participation, and knowledge are negotiated within historically unequal institutional contexts. The findings show that SSPs are neither inherently democratic nor uniformly transformative. Rather, they emerge as contested and fragile practices that can both disrupt and reproduce existing power relations. In contexts marked by toxic leadership, partnerships often function as localised and contingent interventions, offering moments of voice, care, and epistemic recognition while remaining constrained by hierarchical and managerialist governance. When weakly institutionalised, SSPs risk symbolic inclusion without structural change; when reflexively supported, they can challenge deficit narratives, advance epistemic justice, and enable alternative forms of participation. The paper concludes that SSPs can counter toxic leadership only when embedded within broader commitments to shared governance, accountability, and structural transformation in higher education.

As pioneers in the reform of higher education in China, China’s new-type universities, often referred to as the fourth generation of universities, play a crucial role in driving the iteration of educational concepts and innovation in planning and design through their campus construction. As an emerging campus type, existing research largely focuses on planning and design schemes and the static form of campus space, lacking a systematic exploration of its historical dynamic evolution and core influencing factors. This study uses Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), which is a typical example of this new type of university, as a case study to analyze its spatial evolution characteristics, core driving factors, and spatial shaping mechanisms, considering the interactions among multiple stakeholders from the perspective of dynamic campus spatial development. It comprehensively utilizes literature and archive analysis, drawing and image comparison, and field research to systematically trace the entire lifecycle of SUSTech’s campus planning and construction. By combining cognitive maps and questionnaire surveys, it can explore the spatial imagery characteristics of the completed campus, analyze the key influencing factors of its spatial evolution, and propose critical thinking on related issues. It finds that SUSTech’s campus spatial form gradually took shape through a game of radical and eclectic ideas, exhibiting a dual characteristic of innovative pursuit and practical adaptation in terms of site attitude, innovative educational concepts, and planning and design concepts. Spatial evolution is the result of the combined effects of the demands of multiple stakeholders, changes in educational concepts, and the urban development context. This also reflects problems such as an imperfect consultation mechanism, inconsistent planning concepts, and insufficient functional adaptability of architectural images, which hinder the effective implementation of strategies for optimizing campus spaces in the context of China’s higher education transformation. This study reveals the inherent laws governing the dynamic evolution of new university campus spaces during the historical stage of China’s higher education transformation, providing theoretical and practical support for the planning, construction, and operational optimization of similar campuses.

The research relevance was determined by the growing complexity of pedagogical interaction and the intensification of social, cultural, and cognitive contradictions within contemporary higher education, which required not only subject knowledge but also advanced professional and social competences, including tolerance. The study aimed to substantiate teacher tolerance as an integral professional competence and as a methodological principle for resolving pedagogical contradictions in the university educational process. The research was based on philosophical and pedagogical analysis, synthesis and generalisation of theoretical sources, comparative analysis, and reflection on pedagogical practice in higher education. The study examined the phenomenon of teacher tolerance in the context of ongoing transformations in higher education and analysed contradictions inherent in the university educational process, which were classified as global, partial, and situational. The study established that tolerance functions not only as a personal quality but also as a methodological principle that ensured the constructive resolution of pedagogical contradictions. The close relationship between tolerance and critical thinking was analysed, with particular emphasis on dialectical reasoning and the principle of complementarity as alternatives to dichotomous “either-or” approaches prevalent in educational practice. Pedagogical interaction within the “teacher-student” system, the risks of pseudo-tolerance, and the imbalance between knowledge-oriented and activity-based educational models were emphasised. The study also identified and systematises key directions, forms, and methods for fostering tolerance among higher education teachers, particularly within professional development and continuing education programs. The practical value of the research results was determined by the applicability by higher education teachers, teacher educators, and developers of professional development programs to enhance pedagogical decision-making, conflict resolution, and the overall quality of higher education

The accelerating digitization of higher education has intensified longstanding inequities in access, participation, and epistemic representation, particularly within Indigenous and Global South contexts. While global reform agendas emphasize digital literacy, innovation, and future-ready skills, insufficient attention has been given to how digital transformation intersects with Indigenous knowledge systems, self-determined learning, and sustainability imperatives. This paper advances the concept of digital sovereignty as a transformative response to the digital divide in tertiary education. Moving beyond access-based frameworks, digital sovereignty foregrounds Indigenous epistemological authority, cultural self-determination, and equitable participation in knowledge production within digitally mediated learning environments. Drawing on heutagogy as a theoretical foundation, the paper conceptualizes self-determined learning as a pedagogical bridge between Indigenous knowledge traditions and digital innovation. Heutagogical principles—learner agency, double-loop learning, capability development, and reflexivity—align with Indigenous relational epistemologies and collective knowledge stewardship. Through this alignment, tertiary institutions can reframe curriculum, technology integration, and digital literacy initiatives toward culturally grounded, sustainable futures. The analysis highlights how curriculum reform, digital infrastructure policy, and institutional leadership must shift from technocentric adoption models to context-responsive, culturally embedded strategies that empower learners as co-creators of knowledge. The paper proposes an integrative conceptual framework that connects digital equity, Indigenous knowledge systems, and sustainable development goals within higher education transformation. It argues that achieving sustainable futures requires moving from digital consumption to digital agency, and from digital access to digital sovereignty. In doing so, tertiary institutions can cultivate future-ready graduates who are critically literate, culturally rooted, ethically responsible, and capable of navigating complex socio-ecological challenges. The study contributes to emerging debates on decolonizing digital education, sustainable curriculum innovation, and transformative pedagogies in the 21st century.

This autoethnographic essay examines migration, integration, and higher education in German-speaking contexts through a postcolonial lens. Blending analytic and evocative approaches, it critiques dominant narratives and colonial legacies in academic discourse. Drawing on personal and professional experiences, the essay reveals how integration discourse perpetuates marginalization and racialization, leading to emotional and political alienation. It advocates for reimagined pedagogies that centre personal narratives and reflexivity, empowering migrant scholars and students to reclaim agency and challenge hegemonic structures. Through vignettes and a selection of student reflections, it shows how autoethnography bridges lived experiences and theory, serving as both a method of empowerment and a pedagogical tool for inclusive education. Emphasizing multilingualism and diversity as vital resources, the essay calls for systemic change in educational frameworks to reflect the complexities of migration societies and support marginalized voices. Ultimately, it promotes epistemic justice and the transformation of higher education into a more equitable and inclusive space.

Purpose Mental health concerns among students in South African universities have grown more severe in recent years, influenced by inequalities in access, institutional cultures and wider socio-economic pressures. Despite this, dominant mental health responses in higher education remain predominantly top-down and often neglect students’ lived experiences and diverse cultural identities. This paper aims to deepen the understanding of how participatory methods can act as transformative approaches for reimagining mental health support in university settings. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on empirical reflections and Participatory Action Research (PAR) conducted at two South African universities. Through narrative interviews, photovoice, social media-based photovoice and engagement with culturally grounded support systems, the research examines how participation functions not merely as consultation but as co-creation of mental health practices. Findings The study concluded that participatory approaches enhance students’ sense of belonging, agency and resilience. Peer-led initiatives and culturally rooted practices, including communal forms of care, proved vital in addressing the limitations of traditional, individualised mental health frameworks. These participatory activities empowered students to articulate contextually relevant strategies and to challenge institutional cultures that inadvertently perpetuate exclusion. Practical implications The results indicate that universities should move beyond individualised, clinical models of mental health support and adopt participatory, culturally grounded approaches that involve students as co-creators of well-being initiatives. Such approaches have implications for institutional policy, student affairs practice and inclusive governance in higher education. Originality/value The paper demonstrates that involving students and other stakeholders in decision-making can shift campus mental health initiatives from a narrow focus on individual treatment towards broader, community-centred well-being. This aligns with national objectives for social justice and transformation in higher education and offers a more inclusive approach to mental health policy and practice.

The rapid integration of generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools into higher education presents both transformative potential and pedagogical challenges. This study researches the key factors influencing the adoption of GenAI among business school students, utilizing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) as its theoretical framework. Drawing on survey data from 441 students across the Baltic Sea region, the research employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate the relationships between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, study value, habit, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation in predicting the use of GenAI. The findings reveal that habit, social influence, and study value significantly impact students' adoption of GenAI tools. At the same time, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation do not show statistically significant effects. These results suggest a behavioral-intention gap: positive perceptions of GenAI do not consistently translate into actual use. The study highlights the importance of fostering habitual engagement and peer-driven norms to encourage meaningful integration of GenAI in academic settings. By offering empirical insights into student behavior, this study contributes to the discourse on digital transformation in higher education. It provides actionable recommendations for educators and policymakers to support the ethical, practical, and student-centered adoption of GenAI, aligning with the conference's mission to advance innovation and quality in higher education studies.

The rapid convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Metaverse technologies is reshaping the higher education landscape by enabling immersive, personalized, and adaptive learning experiences. However, the long-term sustainability of such innovations remains uncertain without addressing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations. This study develops and empirically validates an ESG-informed framework for Sustainable AI–Metaverse Adoption (SAAM) in higher education. A quantitative research design was employed, collecting data from 280 university students across diverse disciplines through a structured survey. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM-PLS) was applied to assess measurement reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and to test the proposed hypotheses. The empirical results demonstrate that ESG dimensions exert differential effects on sustainable adoption, with environmental and social factors showing stronger direct associations than governance-related variables. Environmental sustainability, through energy-efficient AI systems, significantly enhances SAAM. Similarly, social dimensions, particularly inclusive AI access and student acceptance, exert robust positive effects on sustainable adoption, whereas faculty readiness influences adoption indirectly. Conversely, governance-related factors exhibit comparatively weaker direct effects: institutional policy support enhances digital infrastructure but does not directly influence SAAM, whereas ethical AI use has a limited impact, reflecting student prioritization of usability over ethics in early stages of adoption. Importantly, the outcomes highlight that SAAM substantially fosters digital pedagogical innovation (DPI) and enhanced student learning outcomes (ESLO), confirming its transformative potential. The study contributes theoretically by integrating ESG principles into technology adoption research, offering a multidimensional lens that enriches the understanding of sustainable digital transformation in higher education. Practically, it provides institutions and policymakers with evidence-based insights to design environmentally conscious, socially inclusive, and governance-supported strategies for AI–Metaverse integration. Future research should expand to cross-cultural contexts, larger samples, and longitudinal designs to validate and generalize these findings.

The growing integration of technology in education has intensified the global discourse on digital literacy, positioning it as a core competency for learners and educators in the 21st century. Despite its importance, research trends on digital literacy within educational contexts remain fragmented, calling for a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to map its evolution, key contributors, and emerging themes. This study aims to examine global research patterns, collaboration networks, and thematic developments in digital literacy and education. Data were retrieved from the Scopus database using the keywords “digital literacy,” “education,” “teach,” and “learn,” yielding a total of 894 publications. The data were cleaned and harmonized using OpenRefine to ensure consistency in author names, keywords, and affiliations. Statistical and graphical analyses were conducted using the Scopus Analyzer to identify publication growth, prolific authors, institutions, and countries, while VOSviewer software was employed to visualize keyword co-occurrence, co-authorship, and citation networks. The findings reveal a consistent growth of research since 2015, with significant contributions from countries such as Indonesia, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. The most prominent themes identified include digital literacy competence, e-learning, teacher training, and higher education transformation, indicating a strong focus should succinctly summarize the purpose of the paper, the methods used, the major results, and conclusions. on pedagogical innovation and equitable access to digital skills. Furthermore, network visualizations highlight increasing international collaboration and thematic diversification, particularly in the context of post-pandemic digital education. Overall, this study provides a holistic overview of the intellectual structure and knowledge dynamics of digital literacy in education, offering valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and researchers to strengthen digital education frameworks and guide future research directions.

Digital transformation in higher education is often constrained by the readiness of human resources. This study aims to analyze how military based organizational cultural values, namely discipline, loyalty, and courtesy strengthen the implementation of Dave Ulrich Four Roles of Human Resource model in supporting the transformation toward a Smart Military University. Using a qualitative case study approach at Jenderal Achmad Yani University, data were collected through in depth interviews observations and document analysis. The analysis visualized through a concept map shows that the interaction between the value of discipline and the Administrative Expert role has the highest frequency of references predominantly expressed by respondents from the ICT team and the administrative bureau. These findings indicate that data integrity within digital systems is highly dependent on compliance with established procedures. Meanwhile the value of loyalty emphasized by university leadership serves as the foundation of the Strategic Partner role in executing the institutional vision while courtesy underpins the Employee Champion role in delivering services. This study demonstrates that local cultural values constitute a determining variable for the successful performance of human resource management functions in the digital era.

A higher education system that is both culturally grounded and globally competitive is required by India's vision of Viksit Bharat@2047. The Indic-Global PBL Model, a project-based learning framework that combines contemporary pedagogical innovation with the immersive, holistic, and value-driven ethos of the gurukul tradition, is proposed in this study. Through qualitative synthesis, we show how PBL may integrate Indic priorities including ethical grounding, contextual relevance, and collaborative creativity while improving student engagement, critical thinking, and social responsibility. In order to prepare graduates for global issues without sacrificing cultural identity, the model provides curriculum designers, legislators, and institutions with a transformative roadmap that aligns higher education with national development goals.

Effective technology integration through e-leadership is an essential for enhancing conducive learning environments and fostering digital citizenship in a globalized world. The purpose of this study is to assess how E-leadership and technology integration predict the quality of education within Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs) in Ethiopia. It seeks to fill an existing theoretical gap by presenting a robust framework that explores this multifaceted relationship. Data were collected from 153 academic staff and 22 leaders across four colleges using a mixed-methods concurrent embedded design. Quantitative data were analyzed via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test predictive relationships, while qualitative data from interviews were analyzed using Thematic Analysis to capture leadership behaviors. The analysis revealed that technology integration significantly predicts 88.2% of the variance in education quality. Crucially, this relationship is mediated by e-leadership, which serves as a vital bridge between physical infrastructure and pedagogical output. Qualitative findings underscore that while e-leaders demonstrate transformative dedication, they face persistent challenges including infrastructure inadequacy, limited staff readiness, and a scarcity of contextually relevant digital content. These barriers directly impede the effectiveness of educational activities. This study contributes to the theoretical landscape by validating a multifaceted model of digital transformation in developing contexts. Practically, it underscores the need for e-leaders to foster holistic environments that extend beyond equipment acquisition. The study recommends that CTEs prioritize e-competency training for leaders and establish localized digital content repositories. Future research should investigate longitudinal impacts and comparative studies across different educational levels to refine strategies for sustainable digital transformation in higher education.

This study investigates the transformation of leading university leadership in China between 2013 and 2023, drawing on a longitudinal dataset that spans Party and administrative systems across 108 leading (211 Project) universities in 2013 and 147 Double First-Class institutions in 2023. Employing a mixed-methods design that combines quantitative trend analysis with documentary and institutional-website evidence, it traces changes in leaders’ socio-demographic, academic, and career profiles—covering degree attainment, disciplinary background, international experience, institutional mobility, gender, age, and political affiliation. The findings reveal marked professionalization: doctorate-holding leaders became nearly universal among presidents and increasingly common among Party secretaries, while international exposure expanded notably, particularly in non-985 Double First-Class universities. Cross-institutional mobility rose sharply, indicating a more open yet politically filtered leadership market. In contrast, gender imbalance and older age structures persisted, and Communist Party membership remained near-universal. Incremental governance adjustments—such as expanded vice-presidential portfolios, dual-role appointments, and portfolio specialization—reflect growing managerial differentiation within a Party-led framework. Overall, the results demonstrate a hybrid governance model in which professional modernization coexists with centralized political control. By integrating coordinated 2013–2023 data with comparative interpretation, the study provides new longitudinal evidence on how China’s leading universities reconcile global competitiveness with state supervision, contributing to broader debates on leadership professionalization and governance transformation in higher education.

In the context of international integration and digital transformation in higher education, the demand for high-quality accounting bachelor's degree training is becoming increasingly urgent. This requires higher education institutions to improve their training programs to ensure graduates meet labor market demands and enhance competitiveness. This article analyzes, evaluates, and measures the quality of accounting bachelor's degree training in higher education institutions. The research sample consists of final-year students and alumni of higher education institutions majoring in accounting. We use a quantitative research method with the support of SPSS statistical software. The results show that the quality of accounting bachelor's degree training reaches a level of 3.044 on a 5-point Likert scale, reflecting a fairly average assessment of training quality by students. This indicates that students have a certain level of satisfaction but still desire improvement, especially in practical skills—a core element for the accounting profession. Overall, the quality of training has reached an acceptable level, but it is not truly outstanding in the context of increasingly high professional demands. This result is also consistent with the previous study's observation that the quality of university training in general and accounting in particular needs significant improvement in practical skills, application, and engagement with businesses (Jackling & De Lange, 2009). Based on the research results, we propose several recommendations for higher education institutions to improve the quality of accounting bachelor's degree training.