A Bibliometric Analysis of University-to-Work Transition Research in South African Higher Education Institutions (1980 – 2025)

Several African countries are currently experiencing high unemployment rates. Notably, South Africa has the highest unemployment rate on the African continent. Often affected by this are graduates from the South African higher education system. Calls exist for researchers to be more alert to the challenges and the necessity for nuanced solutions to address these challenges. Furthermore, there is a need to ascertain the experiences of transition faced by graduates entering the labour market. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on the current research trajectory of university-to-work transition research in South Africa between 1980 and 2025. Search terms were used in the Scopus database, comprising 'employment' OR 'employability' OR 'work' AND 'university' OR 'alumni' OR 'graduates' OR 'higher education'. To narrow the review's focus, the research trajectory was limited to South Africa through a multidisciplinary perspective. The studies must also have been in English. Subsequently, a total of 4704 publications were collected from the Scopus database and analysed using VOSViewer and Biblioshiny. The results highlighted that university-to-work themes started to gain interest in 2013. Additionally, the results revealed that the education field dominates the university-to-work theme, with emerging themes pertaining to experiential learning and decolonisation. The study has implications primarily for scholars, with relevant research avenues suggested at the end.