Bibliometric mapping of sustainable university research development: Trend analysis, collaboration, and topic evolution (2004-2024)

This study aims to map an interesting topic, namely sustainable universities, using a bibliometric review. Sustainability is not only reflected in industry or companies, but must begin in education before entering the professional level. Therefore, it is important to conduct a bibliometric study to map the latest research landscape in order to determine the extent to which the topic of sustainable universities has developed. The analysis was conducted using the Scopus database and 145 documents were selected. There has been significant growth, with 15.31% of articles produced per year. The main contributions from research with the keyword ‘sustainable universities’ show that Malaysia, China, and the United States have made significant contributions to this research. Meanwhile, the most reliable journal source is the journal Sustainability (Switzerland). Furthermore, based on co-occurrence network analysis, the most developed keywords were identified in three main thematic clusters, namely systemic and circular economic approaches to sustainable campus transformation, policy and governance aspects with a focus on emission control, and human behavioural aspects in campus operational management. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the evolution of international topics and collaboration patterns and identifies research gaps that can form the basis for the development of sustainable campus policies and future research directions. In short, this research map serves as a strategic foundation for academics and practitioners in accelerating the transformation towards a truly sustainable university.