Digital Credentials in Higher Education Institutions: A Literature Review

Abstract

Digitalization is an essential driver for change, also influencing universities in their operation. However, the graduation certificate is still paper-based and does not fit employers’ digitized recruitment processes. Digitizing the graduation certificate is overdue to align with the digitized processes of employers and universities. However, there is only a few research on that issue. This paper aims to conduct a systematic literature analysis. Therefore, we investigated 147 articles in the context of research on digital credentials. The results show that, although there is an increasing interest in this research area, the research community lacks an unique understanding of digital credentials. The paper gives an overview of research made so far and contributes to identifying research gaps in the context of digital credentials.