Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations of Raising The Competitiveness of Higher Education Institutions: A Literature Review

This paper synthesises the theoretical and conceptual foundations of the problem of raising the competitiveness of higher education institutions (HEIs) through a systematic review of the literature. The aim is to trace the evolution of the concepts of competition and competitiveness from classical economic theory to contemporary institutional approaches, and to establish how thoroughly the competitiveness of higher education institutions has been examined in the foreign and domestic literature. The review groups relevant theories into four strands: classical market theory, human capital theory, competitive advantage theory, and institutional-governance theories. It further examines the legal and institutional context of higher education reform in Uzbekistan and the contribution of domestic scholars to the field. The review shows that most of the existing domestic studies were carried out between 2006 and 2013 and that, under conditions of fundamental economic transformation, a methodology for assessing the competitiveness of regional higher education institutions grounded in graduates' actual labour-market outcomes remains underdeveloped. This gap is established as a relevant direction for subsequent empirical research.