Higher Education and Disability: A Systematic Literature Review and Agenda for Research

Abstract

This systematic literature review provides a synthesis of what issues within disability have been researched, how universities respond to the issues to be inclusive to disabled students and the role of higher education environment and policy, in doing so. The review is motivated by the emphasis on inclusive and equitable quality education and reduced inequalities in sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the increasing attention on universities' role in promoting social change, justice and mobility for marginalised groups. Based on multistep methodology that included preliminary search, database selection and keyword-based article retrieval, we conducted a descriptive thematic analysis of 204 research articles on disability in higher education. Our study advances existing literature reviews on the same topic by covering a much larger number of articles, including a broader set of disabilities than physical disability, uncovering a range of themes beyond students' experiences and including policy and managerial aspects corresponding to disability in higher education. We recommend future research areas that can fill the gaps in and advance existing research on disability in higher education.