Education 4.0 to Education 5.0 in HEIs: Are We Ready?

The rapid evolution of educational paradigms from Education 4.0 to Education 5.0 reflects the global demand for a more human-centric, sustainability-conscious, and value-driven approach to learning. While Education 4.0 emphasized digitalization, automation, and smart learning systems aligned with Industry 4.0, Education 5.0 builds upon this foundation by integrating ethical consciousness, emotional intelligence, and social responsibility into the educational framework. This review article aims to explore the scholarly transition from Education 4.0 to Education 5.0, examining both conceptual developments and bibliometric trends. The study undertakes a comprehensive literature review of the publications that address the progression between these two educational models. Furthermore, it utilizes VOSviewer to perform a detailed bibliometric analysis of articles indexed in the Scopus database, focusing on co-authorship networks, keyword co-occurrence, and publication trends. The findings reveal a gradual yet steady shift in research focus toward the principles of Education 5.0, highlighting emerging research clusters centered on sustainability, learner well-being and their preferences, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the ethical use of technology. The study not only maps the intellectual landscape of this transition but also offers valuable insights and a potential research roadmap for scholars and policymakers aiming to contribute to the future of transformative education.