The trends and foci of blockchain applications in higher education: A systematic review and keyword network analysis

Despite a growing number of publications on the application of blockchain in education, there is a lack of up-to-date and comprehensive reviews of the recent research trends in this area. This paper provides a systematic review of 70 articles published between 2013 and 2023 on the application of blockchain in higher education. We used text mining and keyword network analysis to provide a more nuanced analysis of the research foci in this area. The analysis not only shows the five key areas of the application of blockchain, but also the relationships between the main keywords and their connected keywords. This review yielded an implication that the research of blockchain in higher education should focus on the user’s experience of the implementation of blockchain with empirical data from various stakeholders. In addition, future research should focus on the secure management and verification of students’ data.