Employability development through peer learning and alumni engagement

A bibliometric and thematic analysis of higher education research

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32674/tz5rpb44

Keywords:

alumni engagement, bibliometric analysis, employability, higher education, management education, mentoring, peer learning

Abstract

This study examines how peer learning, mentoring, and alumni engagement jointly relate to student employability, using bibliometric and thematic analysis of 117 peer-reviewed articles indexed in Scopus (2010–2025). Publications increased markedly after 2019, reflecting growing scholarly interest in this area. Three interdependent thematic clusters emerged: peer learning as a foundation for teaching and learning practice; mentoring and experiential learning as supports for post-graduation career development; and alumni relations as a bridge between universities and workplaces. Based on these patterns, the study proposes a developmental ecosystem model of employability integrating pedagogy, relationships, and experiential learning, and suggests management education is shifting toward experiential, network-based approaches.

References

Ahmed, A. M., & Osman, M. A. (2026). Mentorship and graduate employability: A systematic review of global evidence and emerging trends. Discover Education, 5, Article 479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-026-01492-z

Barber, M., Donnelly, K., & Rizvi, S. (2013). An avalanche is coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead. Institute for Public Policy Research.

Bhatia, S., & Amati, J. P. (2010). “If these women can do it, I can do it too”: Building women engineering leaders through graduate peer mentoring. Leadership and Management in Engineering, 10(4), 174–184. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)LM.1943-5630.0000081

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press.

Bulut, A. (2026). The role of Higher Education journal in shaping global knowledge networks: A bibliometric and thematic analysis. Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-026-01647-9

Cassidy, S. (2006). Developing employability skills: Peer assessment in higher education. Education + Training, 48(7), 508–517. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910610705890

Castleman, B. L., & Page, L. C. (2014). Summer nudging: Can personalized text messages and peer mentor outreach increase college going among low-income high school graduates? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 115, 144–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.12.008

Cobo, M. J., López-Herrera, A. G., Herrera-Viedma, E., & Herrera, F. (2011). An approach for detecting, quantifying, and visualizing the evolution of a research field: A practical application to the fuzzy sets theory field. Journal of Informetrics, 5(1), 146–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2010.10.002

Donald, W. E., & Ford, N. (2023). Fostering social mobility and employability: The case for peer learning. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(3), 672–678. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1799809

Donald, W. E., Baruch, Y., & Ashleigh, M. J. (2023). Construction and operationalisation of an Employability Capital Growth Model (ECGM) via a systematic literature review (2016–2022). Studies in Higher Education, 49(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2023.2219270

Donthu, N., Kumar, S., Mukherjee, D., Pandey, N., & Lim, W. M. (2021). How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 133, 285–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.070

English, P., de Villiers Scheepers, M. J., Fleischman, D., Burgess, J., & Crimmins, G. (2021). Developing professional networks: The missing link to graduate employability. Education + Training, 63(4), 647–661. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-10-2020-0309

Glover, D. (2026). Informing higher education policy and practice through alumni engagement research: A bibliometric study. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603108.2026.2673438

Hall, R., & Jaugietis, Z. (2011). Developing peer mentoring through evaluation. Innovative Higher Education, 36(1), 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-010-9156-6

Hartman, H., Forin, T., Sukumaran, B., Farrell, S., Bhavsar, P., Jahan, K., Dusseau, R., Bruckerhoff, T., Cole, P., Lezotte, S., Zeppilli, D., & Macey, D. (2019). Strategies for improving diversity and inclusion in an engineering department. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 145(2), 04018016. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000404

Heckman, R., & Guskey, A. (1998). The relationship between alumni and university: Toward a theory of discretionary collaborative behavior. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 6(2), 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.1998.11501896

Heslin, P. A., Keating, L. A., & Ashford, S. J. (2019). How being in learning mode may enable a sustainable career across the lifespan. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 110, 220–236.

Iskhakova, L., Hoffmann, S., & Hilbert, A. (2017). Alumni loyalty: Systematic literature review. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 29(3), 274–316. https://doi.org/10.1080/10495142.2017.1326352

Jaber Chehayeb, R., SenthilKumar, G., Saade, Z., Gallo Marin, B., Aghagoli, G., & Virji, A. Z. (2022). Examining the first peer-to-peer mentorship program (F1Doctors) for international medical students. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, 11(1), 102–125. https://www.ojed.org/jise/article/view/4263

Jackson, D. (2016). Re-conceptualising graduate employability: The importance of pre-professional identity. Higher Education Research & Development, 35(5), 925–939. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1139551

Jones, N., Torezani, S., & Luca, J. (2012). A peer-to-peer support model for developing graduate students' career and employability skills. Intercultural Education, 23(1), 51–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2012.664755

Kinash, S., McGillivray, L., & Crane, L. (2018). Do university students, alumni, educators and employers link assessment and graduate employability? Higher Education Research & Development, 37(2), 301–315. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1368505

Kram, K. E., & Isabella, L. A. (1985). Mentoring alternatives: The role of peer relationships in career development. Academy of Management Journal, 28(1), 110–132. https://doi.org/10.2307/256064

Ladyshewsky, R. K. (2006). Peer coaching: A constructivist methodology for enhancing critical thinking in postgraduate business education. Higher Education Research & Development, 25(1), 67–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360500453096

Ladyshewsky, R. K., & Flavell, H. (2011). Transfer of training in an academic leadership development program for program coordinators. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 40(1), 127–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143211420615

Larsson, C. F., Marshall, B., & Ritchie, B. (2022). The alumni project: Fostering student-alumni engagement in the curriculum. Journal of Education for Business, 97(4), 253–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2021.1886765

Maulana, A. E., Patterson, P. G., Satria, A., & Pradipta, I. A. (2024). Alumni connectedness and its role in intention to contribute to higher education institutions. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 34(2), 1124–1145. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2023.2176543

McDougall, M., & Beattie, R. S. (1997). Peer mentoring at work: The nature and outcomes of non-hierarchical developmental relationships. Management Learning, 28(4), 423–437. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507697284003

Mei, C., Alias, B. S., & Ahmad, J. (2025). Alumni engagement in higher education institutions: A comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR). Environment and Social Psychology, 10(12), 4398. https://doi.org/10.59429/esp.v10i12.4398

Niu, Y., Zhu, Y., Xu, X., & Hunter-Johnson, Y. (2022). Exploring self-perceived employability and ambition of student veterans in a higher education institution in the United States. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, 11(2), 73–94. https://ojed.org/jise/article/view/4528

Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J. M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu, M. M., Li, T., Loder, E. W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., … Moher, D. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ, 372, n71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71

Pandit, D., & Agrawal, S. (2022). Exploring challenges of online education in COVID times. FIIB Business Review, 11(3), 263–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/2319714520986254

Parker, P., Hall, D. T., & Kram, K. E. (2008). Peer coaching: A relational process for accelerating career learning. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7(4), 487–503. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2008.35882189

Paul, J., Lim, W. M., O'Cass, A., Hao, A. W., & Bresciani, S. (2021). Scientific procedures and rationales for systematic literature reviews (SPAR-4-SLR). International Journal of Consumer Studies, 45(4), O1–O16.

Riebe, L., Sibson, R., Roepen, D., & Meakins, K. (2013). Impact of industry guest speakers on business students' perceptions of employability skills development. Industry and Higher Education, 27(1), 55–66. https://doi.org/10.5367/ihe.2013.0140

Shahin, M., Ilic, O., Gonsalvez, C., & Whittle, J. (2021). The impact of a STEM-based entrepreneurship program on the entrepreneurial intention of secondary school female students. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 17(4), 1867–1898. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-020-00713-7

Shen, H., & Sha, B. L. (2020). Conceptualizing and operationalizing alumni engagement: When conversational voice matters more than openness and assurances of legitimacy. Public Relations Review, 46(5), 101974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2020.101974

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3–10.

Sulistiawan, J. (2025). Mapping employability: A decade of trends and insights from higher education through bibliometric analysis (2014–2024). Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-06-2024-0394

Tigga, A. E., Pathak, P., & Kumar, R. V. (2014). Branding of B-schools by understanding the expectations of their three major stakeholders. Indian Journal of Marketing, 44(1), 7–23.

Tomkins, L., & Ulus, E. (2015). Is narcissism undermining critical reflection in our business schools? Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(4), 595–606. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2014.0107

Topping, K. J. (2005). Trends in peer learning. Educational Psychology, 25(6), 631–645. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410500345172

Tushar, H., & Sooraksa, N. (2023). Global employability skills in the 21st century workplace: A semi-systematic literature review. Heliyon, 9(10), e21023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21023

Vickers, M., McCarthy, F., & Zammit, K. (2017). Peer mentoring and intercultural understanding: Support for refugee-background and immigrant students beginning university study. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 60, 198–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2017.04.015

Vieregger, C., & Bryant, A. (2020). Student-alumni mentoring in the business capstone: An opportunity to both cap and bridge the undergraduate experience. Journal of Education for Business, 95(5), 335–343. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2019.1646698

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.

Wahab, S. A. (2025). Graduate employability: A bibliometric analysis. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 44, 38–57. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22267

Additional Files

Published

2026-10-30

Issue

Section

Education, Policy, and Economic Systems

How to Cite

Sood, E., Vij, S., & Gupta, P. (2026). Employability development through peer learning and alumni engagement: A bibliometric and thematic analysis of higher education research. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, 15(8). https://doi.org/10.32674/tz5rpb44