In a context where learning mediated by technology has gained prominence in higher education, learning analytics has become a powerful tool to collect and analyse data with the aim of improving students’ learning. However, learning analytics is part of a young community and its developments deserve further exploration. Some critical stances claim that learning analytics tends to underplay the complexity of teaching-learning processes. By means of both a bibliometric and a content analysis, this paper examines the publication patterns on learning analytics in higher education and their main challenges. 385 papers that were published in WoScc and SciELO indexes between 2013 and 2019 were identified and analysed. Learning analytics is a vibrant and fast-developing community. However, it continues to face multiple and complex challenges, especially regarding students’ learning and their implications. The paper concludes by distinguishing between a practice-based and management-oriented community of learning analytics and an academic-oriented community. Within both communities, though, it seems that the focus is more on analytics than on learning.

In this article, the production of knowledge about what is known in the international literature as ‘the student experience’ is examined. This construct has been researched in the United Kingdom while, in the United States, the “student engagement” has gained traction. Although in Latin America the production of knowledge in higher education has been increasing in the last decade, studies on student experiences are rather scarce, although there are abundant literatures on higher education in general. By means of a bibliometric analysis and a content analysis of articles published between 2000 and 2017 by Latin American authors in two recognized indexes (Web of Science and SciELO), this article examines the production of knowledge about higher education students' experiences from a geopolitics of knowledge perspective. The results show that, in Latin America, there is a diverse production of knowledge about higher education students, and given this plurality, the concept of “epistemic polyphony” is proposed. On the one hand, there is an epistemic predominance of Anglo-Saxon influences but, on the other hand, it also presents specific features related to higher education systems in the region. The article ends with a reflection on the ways in which knowledge is produced in the Latin American region and how such production has an impact on policies.

The journal, Higher Education (HE), was established in 1972 and is currently one of the leading international journals in higher education studies. By using bibliometric techniques, a systematic review, and a social network analysis, this review article provides an overview of the main patterns of publications in HE during its history. The findings show that (i) the volume of articles has been continuously increasing, with a particular marked uplift since 2007; (ii) while single-authored articles have dominated the publication pattern, collaborative articles have shown a particular growth over the last decade; (iii) the USA, the UK, and Australia have dominated the journal in terms of the number of articles, international collaboration, and the most prolific authors; (iv) while Chinese authors have become more evident, there has been a near-absence of contributions from Latin America, Eastern Europe, and most of Africa; (v) in the entire history of HE , there has been a gender imbalance (in favour of male authors) across the most cited articles, but this pattern has changed in the last decade and; (vi) both teaching and learning and system policy have been key research themes in the journal although internationalisation and the student experience have recently gained traction. These patterns of publication in HE , with their imbalances and absences, suggest several challenges ahead. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10734-022-00924-7.

Retention in Higher Education (HE) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has considerable social, economic and individual effects (Project ALFA-GUIA, 2013, CINDA, 2006). Retention has assumed technical relevance in studies of quality in education, at the same time that it increases its importance in international rankings and in the accreditation processes of university institutions. According to a World Bank study (Ferreyra et al., 2017) HE in the region is characterized by: 1) an average completion rate of 46%, with important differences between one country and another; 2) the existence of an exponential increase in enrollment, doubling its regular rate; 3) the incorporation of “new students”, previously underrepresented in the HE. Taking into account that in the region there is a lack of predictive research on the phenomenon of retention (Munizaga, Cifuentes Beltrán, 2018), this study aims to review recent information regarding retention in LAC, in order to reach an agreed definition about the phenomenon, with the intention of broadening the discussion on how to guarantee the retention of students in a context of equitable and inclusive HE (Espinoza, González Latorre, 2009). All in all, this work seeks to answer what are the individual, sociodemographic and institutional variables associated with the retention of first-year students of the Programa Académico de Bachillerato of the University of Chile? Through a binary logistic regression model, composed of eight variables, the following six significant variables were identified: ethnic origin of the students, approval of all credits and gratuity, with a positive relationship with retention. On the other hand, the preference, gender and score of the university selection test, reach a negative association with retention. The main recommendations of this study are, at the institutional level, to offer broader academic trajectories and, at the state level, to assume responsibilities regarding the financing of students.

Critical thinking (CT) in higher education (HE) has been widely investigated in Western countries. Most of the research on CT has conceived it as a higher order thinking skill with implications for learning processes. CT has also been connected with critical pedagogies, an approach that seems particularly attuned with the Latin American region. Through a systematic literature review, this article maps the scholarship on CT in HE in Latin America (LATAM). Findings point to a local character of the research on CT that heavily relies on cognitive psychology traditions. It is proposed that the scholarship on CT in LATAM is characterised by an epistemic disjuncture that favours theories and methodologies produced in the Global North overshadowing well-recognised traditions of critical pedagogies in the region. We conclude that research on CT in the region is missing an opportunity to develop powerful features that are especially fitting for LATAM’s geo-historic context.