Researching higher education leadership and management in Arab countries: A systematic review

Abstract

The present study aims to review higher education leadership and management (HELM) research in the Arab region. The study employed systematic review methods to analyze 77 articles published in educational leadership and management journals, higher education journals, and journals indexed in the Scopus database between 2000 and 2020. The analysis focused on identifying the main features and trends found in the articles including the development of publication volume over time, geographical distribution, types of studies, research topics, and research methods. Quantitative methods were used to analyze the data. The features identified echoed those reported for the broader educational leadership and management literature in Arab societies such as the relatively small size of the knowledge base, uneven geographical distribution, the predominance of empirical, quantitative studies, and high emphasis on leadership as a research topic. The findings are discussed in the light of relevant literature, and recommendations are provided to improve future HELM research in the region.