Mapping Research Trend on Willingness to Contribute to Educational Waqf Funds in Higher Education Institution: A Bibliometric Study

Educational waqf has emerged as a strategic instrument for financing higher education, particularly in response to declining public funding and increasing institutional costs. Despite the growing attention to waqf within Islamic social finance, studies on individuals’ willingness to contribute to educational waqf funds remain fragmented, with limited integration of research trends, thematic development, and collaboration patterns. This study seeks to systematically chart the development and intellectual architecture of studies concerning willingness to contribute to educational waqf in higher education institutions. A bibliometric approach was employed using Scopus as the primary data source. An advanced search approach centered on the keyword “educational waqf” was implemented, yielding a final corpus of 140 peer-reviewed journal articles spanning the period from 2008 to 2026. The dataset underwent preprocessing and cleansing through OpenRefine, whereas descriptive statistical examination was executed via Scopus Analyzer. Subsequent network mapping and co-occurrence investigations were conducted with VOSviewer to delineate thematic clusters and interconnections within the literature. The results demonstrate a marked escalation in publication output, especially after 2020, reaching its highest point in 2025, which reflects a growing academic focus on educational waqf as a sustainable financing mechanism. Citation analysis highlights a concentration of influential studies in areas such as Islamic finance, socio-economic development, and higher education funding. Keyword co-occurrence results identify dominant themes including waqf, Islamic finance, and higher education, alongside emerging topics such as cash waqf, philanthropy, and sustainable development. Additionally, country-level collaboration analysis indicates that Malaysia, as well as Indonesia, emerges as the most prominent contributors, each supported by robust and well-established research networks. In general, the findings suggest that research on educational waqf is progressively developing into a dynamic and cross-disciplinary domain, and future studies should emphasize broader geographical coverage, longitudinal approaches, and deeper integration of behavioral and financial perspectives.