The Trajectory of Artificial Intelligence Research in Higher Education: A Bibliometric Analysis and Visualisation

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications is gaining global attention and promises to revolutionise every aspect of human life, including education. AI will transform higher education (HE) institutions through improved adaptation and competitiveness. The application of AI in HE is an emerging research area with limited review. Our paper seeks to provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis and visualisation of research on AI application in HE in the past two decades. We evaluated 283 articles published by researchers from 59 countries in the Scopus database over the past two decades based on explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria. The study applied various bibliometric indicators and word analysis to examine emergent trends. VOSviewer was used for visualisations to map a knowledge base by uncovering keywords used within AI in HE. The results show the number of AI articles published per year, their geographic distribution, analysis by subject area and keywords, and research trends. Research in AI is interdisciplinary, dominated by computer science and engineering fields. AI research in HE is growing, the first 15 years contributed 22%, and the last five years yielded 78%. Countries with a high investment in research dominated AI research, with China and the United States leading. There is very little research from developing countries. Our paper highlights current and future research directions in AI in education, and its limitations.