GOVERNING RESEARCH COLLABORATION AND KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS (2015–2025)

Resumo

In recent years, research collaboration has increasingly emerged as a key mechanism shaping knowledge production within higher education systems, particularly under conditions influenced by globalization and digital transformation. Despite this growing attention, the existing literature remains somewhat fragmented, often providing only partial insights into how collaboration networks evolve and how knowledge structures are formed. From this perspective, a more integrated and systematic examination appears necessary. Building on this premise, the present study adopts a bibliometric approach to explore the development of research collaboration in higher education. The analysis is based on 1,883 publications indexed in Scopus over the period 2015–2025. A combination of techniques is employed, including descriptive statistics, co-authorship and co-citation analyses, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic mapping, allowing for a multi-dimensional understanding of collaboration patterns and intellectual structures. The findings indicate a noticeable acceleration in research output, particularly after 2020, alongside a highly interconnected yet uneven global collaboration network dominated by countries such as the United States and China. At the author level, collaboration tends to concentrate within a limited number of core groups, while many scholars remain at the periphery. In addition, the field draws on diverse intellectual streams, and thematic analyses reveal emerging research directions, although several areas remain underexplored. Taken together, these findings provide a more comprehensive mapping of research collaboration in higher education. Beyond offering a structured overview, the study also generates policy-relevant insights for higher education governance, particularly in fostering more inclusive and sustainable collaboration networks.