Revisiting curriculum research: 50 years of debate on the educational purpose of higher education

This article analyses curriculum-related research published in Studies in Higher Education over five decades, from 1976 to 2025, corresponding to the journal’s 50-year history. A longitudinal thematic review is conducted to provide a comprehensive overview of curriculum topics and trends across different decades, paying particular attention to how they reflect the educational task of higher education, past debates and future directions. The main research question is: What does research on the curriculum tell us about higher education? The thematic review includes 62 articles approached through linguistic ethnography, exploring what we can learn from scholars’ interpretations of the curriculum in what they write about higher education. The results highlight the breadth of research on the curriculum. The employability, skills, and work readiness agenda has received more attention over the years, but the critique of narrow and technical approaches to the purpose of higher education has also increased. Most articles appear to be based on local programme-level research, are unengaged with theoretical curriculum literature, and little attention is paid to students’ role in the curriculum or as participants in the studies. Broader societal aims, including an inclusive and sustainable society, students’ growth through the curriculum, a decolonising perspective and uniting multiple purposes like employability and sustainability, emerge as new openings in curriculum research.