University to work transition: a literature review

Purpose – This article aims to describe the role universities should play in student to work transition. Design/methodology/approach – An objective bibliometric analysis is conducted and supported by qualitative assessments based on authors’ study of relevant papers. Findings – Two themes emerge from the analysis: the first on the university’s role in students’ learning, skills and fits, in the transition process; the second on the university’s role in engagement, motivation and support students in university-to-work transition. Research limitations/implications – From the analysis, no indications emerge on how universities could contribute to student-to-work transition in the context of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development objectives. Furthermore, training students for the future is not an easy assignment in a fast-changing ecosystem. How can higher education prepare students to face future challenges if we only have partial and incomplete perceptions about possible futures? This vexes many policymakers, organisational leaders and educators. Finally, it could be an interesting next step to repeat the Bibliometrix research using subfield keywords to analyse revealed gaps. Practical implications – The study shows that the topic analysed is complex from the managerial, political and social points of view. The issues addressed by studies in UWT so far, concern various aspects: development of student identity, student engagement, fit between higher education and labour market, student motivation, student emotions and learning approaches. The university-to-work transition theme has become a work in progress effort and will most likely continue for the foreseeable future. Originality/value – Since research into university-to-work transition is fragmented, a comprehensive view of this theme seems necessary. Given the importance of the subject, this study will endeavour to fill this gap with an overall and organic perspective of the issue. This is one of the first attempts to grasp this research stream, which, over time, has paved the way to the intersection between “university-to-work transition” in business, management and educational fields.