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The widespread uptake of digital technology tools for online teaching and learning reached its peak during the nationwide lockdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. It transformed the higher education institutions (HEIs) marketplace both in developed and developing countries. However, in this process of digital transformation, several HEIs, specifically from developing countries, faced major challenges. That threatened to affect their sustainability and performance. In this vein, this study conducts a bibliometric review to map the challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest strategies for HEIs to cope with post-pandemic situations in the future.

This comprehensive review encompasses 343 papers published between 2020 and 2023, employing a systematic approach that combines bibliometrics and content analysis to thoroughly evaluate the articles.

The investigation revealed a lack of published work addressing the specific challenges faced by the faculty members affecting their well-being. The study underscores the importance of e-learning technology adoption for higher education sustainability by compelling both students and teachers to rely heavily on social media platforms to maintain social presence and facilitate remote learning. The reduced interpersonal interaction during the pandemic has had negative consequences for academic engagement and professional advancement for both educators and students.

This has implications for policymakers and the management of HEIs, as it may prove useful in reenvisioning and redesigning future curricula. The paper concludes by developing a sustainable learning framework using a blended approach. Additionally, we also provide directions for future research to scholars.

This study has implications for policymakers and HEI management to rethink the delivery of future courses with a focus on education and institute sustainability. Finally, the research also proposes a hybrid learning framework for sustainability and forms a robust foundation for scholars in future research.

Drawing from the literature on internationalization, higher education marketing and place branding, this paper aims to link the internationalization of higher education to country branding. It explores the impact of internationalization within the higher education system on Egypt’s destination brand equity. This investigation offers insights for decision-makers in both the higher education and country branding sectors.

This empirical paper adopts an exploratory approach and serves as an initial step for researchers. It utilizes a quantitative methodology, employing a survey with 366 responses, to examine the effects of internationalization efforts in higher education on country brand equity.

The results reveal a direct correlation between student engagement and the brand equity of international branch campuses (IBCs), as well as a link between IBCs and Egypt’s brand equity. Notably, the study highlights the mediating role of IBC brand equity in the relationship between student engagement and the overall brand equity of Egypt.

This paper is innovative in its method of assessing the impact of internationalization efforts in higher education, specifically at IBCs in Egypt, on Egypt’s destination brand equity. Additionally, the study identifies student engagement as an antecedent to IBC brand equity.

In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak understanding the behavioral dynamics and role of knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) in driving knowledge worker performance (KWP) is paramount for organizations striving to adapt and thrive in the post-pandemic era. Drawing on the path-goal theory, this study explores the impact of KOL on KWP. In addition, this study seeks to examine both the direct and indirect influences of KOL on KWP via digital orientation (DO) and digital citizenship practices (DCP), especially for higher education institutions (HEIs) located in China.

The sample consisted of 319 academic staff from HEIs in China. The study used Smart-PLS 4.0 for analytical examination.

The results indicate that the impact of knowledge-oriented leadership on KWP is negligible. Furthermore, DCP and DO partially mediate the relationship between KOL and KWP. The findings of this research have practical implications for Chinese HEIs and organizations across industries, providing insights into how to navigate the complexities of the post-pandemic work environment and effectively harness digitalization to optimize the KWP.

The implications of this research extend beyond the HEIs, providing organizations in various industries with evidence-based strategies to promote effective leadership, foster digital skills, and cultivate a culture of digital citizenship in the post-pandemic work landscape.

Despite the increasing significance of KOL in the higher education sector, there is a dearth of studies establishing a relationship between KOL and KWP in HEIs. The present study seeks to fill this gap by examining the association among KOL, KWP, DO, and DCP in HEIs during the post-pandemic. This research provides significant contributions to the existing literature on the topic by scientifically exploring the association between KOL and KWP by examining the intervention mechanism of both digital citizenship practices and digital orientation.

Remote working has brought forward many challenges for employees as the phenomenon is still new for most employees across the globe. Some of these challenges may be addressed by the recent adoption of digital technologies by organizations. In this vein, our study explores the impact of digital platform capability on the creativity of employees through the mediating mechanism of explicit and tacit knowledge sharing.

The data were gathered from higher education institutes (HEIs) in a developing country, Pakistan which recently saw a major disruption during the Covid-19 pandemic. The proposed hypotheses were tested through Structural Equational Modeling (SEM) and the results confirmed our hypotheses.

The findings confirmed that the digital platform capabilities impact both tacit and explicit knowledge sharing among these remote employees. Likewise, the results also supported the mediating role of both explicit and tacit knowledge sharing on the creativity of these remote workers.

Our results are significant as they confirm the impact of digitalization on remote workers’ creativity predisposition. We thus advance the academic debate on the problems of knowledge sharing in remote working. We prove that digital capabilities outweigh the challenges created due to new forms of work driven by the pandemic. It further highlights the important areas to focus on while planning human resource policies in the new normal.

An effective business model (BM) is essential for the success of any company, with sustainable innovation being a critical component of this model. This entails finding creative ways to meet present needs without compromising future generations. In this regard, cooperation can be crucial in developing sustainable innovation. This paper investigates how different types of cooperation impact the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) innovation for environmental sustainability. In this sense, it intends to compare the effects of cooperation acquired nationally or at a European level.

The methods used are logistic regression for the sample of 87,374 observations from 14 countries of the Eurostat Community Innovation Survey (CIS) database.

The results confirm that cooperation with national or European agents significantly impacts the innovation for environmental sustainability of SMEs; however, not all cooperations have the same significance level. At a national level, cooperation with the suppliers of equipment, materials, components or software, clients or customers and universities or other higher education institutes impacts the innovations for environmental sustainability developed by SMEs. At a European level, cooperation established with other enterprises within your enterprise group, equipment, materials, components or software suppliers, clients or customers and government, public or private research institutes significantly impacts innovations for environmental sustainability.

This study also provides substantial theoretical contributions on the subject and more information about the importance of cooperation by SMEs in developing innovation for environmental sustainability.

The purpose of this empirical study is to examine prospective teachers' international mindedness and intercultural competence, grounded in sociocultural theory. The research aims to understand the factors that foster these traits in prospective teachers and their significance in promoting competence in culturally diverse environments.

The study utilized structured equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation to analyze data from 425 participants of two higher education institutions. The participants were selected through simple random probability sampling. This methodology allowed the researchers to explore the relationship between international mindedness and intercultural competence in prospective teachers.

The results of the study demonstrated a positive correlation between international mindedness and intercultural competence in prospective teachers. The findings suggest that by cultivating international mindedness, educators can enhance their intercultural competence, thereby fostering more effective interactions in diverse settings.

The present research holds practical implications for teacher education programs and higher education institutions. By understanding how international mindedness impacts intercultural competence, educators can implement targeted interventions and training to nurture these traits among prospective teachers. This can lead to the creation of culturally inclusive learning environments, promoting mutual respect and appreciation of diversity among students.

The originality of this study lies in its investigation of the link between international mindedness and intercultural competence in the context of prospective teachers enrolled in B.Ed. program in higher education institution. By establishing a causal relationship between these traits, the research adds to the understanding of how teachers can be prepared to engage effectively in culturally diverse classrooms. The findings hold value for educators and policymakers seeking to improve teaching practices and foster global citizenship among future educators and their students.

The study addresses the critical need for a performance measurement model tailored to universities in fragile countries. It aims to identify and prioritise criteria and sub-criteria within the model, specifically designed to accommodate the unique challenges faced by the higher education institutions in fragile nations.

The study employs the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology, combining responses from respondents in four fragile countries: Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan and Chad. The absolute measurement approach of AHP was employed for the final ranking of 15 Somali universities.

The study unveils a comprehensive performance measurement model customised for fragile countries. It identifies the necessary criteria and sub-criteria to assess university performance in such challenging contexts. The findings also reveal the significant performance disparities among 15 Somali universities, shedding light on areas for improvement.

This study’s small sample of countries and response bias are its limitations. The study is limited to fragile countries and may not fully depict the complexity of issues experienced by all types of universities.

This research provides a practical guide for universities in fragile countries to enhance their performance in the face of unique challenges. The model offers a framework for fostering quality practices, improving education quality and enhancing overall performance. Decision-makers and educators can leverage this model to drive changes within their institutions.

This research pioneers a performance-measuring model for fragile countries, filling a long-standing gap in the literature. It provides novel insights into the challenges of judging university performance in demanding contexts and is useful for academics, policymakers and top management of institutions.

The present study aims to seek the strategic analysis of the entrepreneurship of agricultural colleges (AC).

In terms of approach, this research was a combination of exploratory and hybrid methods. The present study was conducted in four stages. In the first stage, an open-ended questionnaire was designed to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of entrepreneurship in AC (qualitative method). In the second stage, the Delphi-Fuzzy questionnaire was designed based on the results obtained from the first stage. In the third stage, the criteria of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of entrepreneurship of AC were analyzed based on the pairwise comparison (quantitative method) by the sample using a fuzzy hierarchical analysis process (FHAP). In the fourth stage, presented strategies were ranked based on pairwise comparison using FHAP.

From the analysis of weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats facing AC for entrepreneurship, 12 strategies were presented in 4 groups of aggressive, conservative, competitive and defensive.

The literature review showed that no research has been done so far to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing university entrepreneurship, especially AC. So the present study analyzes the weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats and proposes practical strategies for moving toward the formation of entrepreneurship AC. According to the gaps in providing SWOT of the AC, the results of this research can pave the way for policy makers and planners in this field.

This article problematises the international student label by critically examining the mechanisms that actively portray international students as necessarily different, deficient and uncritical. It broadly aims to tackle the following issues: (a) to challenge the underpinnings of the international label; (b) to uncover the role of neo-essentialist representations of cohorts of students labelled international in sustaining financial exploitation and deficit narratives; and (c) to criticise the current hyper-internationalisation strategy widely adopted by UK HEIs.

The paper mainly relies on findings from research that adopted narrative inquiry to explore the experiences of students labelled international. Data were collected via a series of interviews with 15 postgraduate students at a university in the north of England. The paper also makes use of brief statistical analyses to provide a general overview about the status of UK higher education (international student admission, net economic impact and income).

The paper reveals the underpinnings of the international label and how it is mobilised to other non-UK-domiciled students. The paper equally establishes a strong link between hyper-internationalisation and the (un)sustainability of the UK’s higher education sector.

The research is expected to raise important questions around the experiences and realities endured by students labelled international. In particular, the paper challenges the international label and the mechanisms that sustain the label at institutional levels.

The paper calls for abandoning the international label as a marker of a presumed difference. Equally, the paper highlights the current unsustainability of the UK’s higher education sector and suggests a gradual cap on international tuition fees to alleviate some of the educational inequalities endured by students international, and to ensure the sustainability of the higher education sector.

This is the first research that openly challenges the international label and substitutes it by “students labelled international”. Equally, this is the first paper that recommends to cap international tuition fees on account of findings from students' narratives and statistics that reveal the unsustainability of the UK's higher education sector. Finally, the paper’s conceptual contribution includes a reference to the idea of hyper-internationalisation.

The need to enhance student support is evident in higher education (HE) curricula. In addition to the complications created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the current strategies used in academia are criticised for their lack of appropriate student support in HE. The study focused on the themes under Section 4 of the National Student Survey (NSS): availability to contact tutors, receiving good advice and guidance and availability of good advice. The study aimed to provide recommendations for enhancing academic support by developing drivers that need implementation during course delivery.

A documental analysis and a qualitative survey were adopted for this study. A documental analysis of 334 mid-module reviews (MMRs) from levels three to six students in the built environment (BE) discipline. Critical themes identified from the MMRs were fed forward in developing a questionnaire for academics. A sample of 23 academics, including a Head of school, a Principal lecturer, Subject leads and Lecturers, participated in the questionnaire survey. Content analysis is adopted through questionnaire data to develop drivers to enhance academic support in BE. These drivers are then modelled by interpretive structural modelling (ISM) to identify their correlation to NSS Section 4 themes. A level partition analysis establishes how influential they are in enhancing academic support.

The study identified nine drivers, where two drivers were categorised as fundamental, two as significant, four as important, and one insignificant in enhancing academic support in HE. Module leaders’/tutors’ improving awareness and detailing how academic support is provided were identified as fundamental. Differentiating roles in giving advice and the importance of one-to-one meetings were identified as significant. A level partitioning diagram was developed from the nine drivers to illustrate how these drivers need to be implemented to promote the best practices in academic support in HE.

The identified drivers and their categories can be used to set prioritised guidelines for academics and other educational institutions to improve students’ overall satisfaction.

Novelty from the study will be the developed drivers and the level partitioning diagram to assist academics and academic institutions in successfully integrating academic support into HE curricula.