Knowledge Management Models for Higher Education Institutions: a literature review

Knowledge management has a strong relationship with the organization of the information and its transformation into knowledge, thus its main object of study are the human, organizational, and technological factors involved in the flow of knowledge transfer and its life cycle. The incorporation of knowledge management practices in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is increasing in the last decade (Quarchioni et al., 2020). Institutional evaluation and accreditation processes that seek to measure the minimum acceptable quality in academic -administrative processes have also increased. Thus, the knowledge management systems are tools very valuable for the optimal management of documents and information in the accreditation process.This hermeneutic literature review contributes with the description of knowledge management as an academic discipline and its application in the understanding of ten (10) knowledge management models for HEIs.The results show that the knowledge management systems models in HEIs are specific to each context and institutions, seeking to improve the substantive functions of the universities. Most of models studied are hybrid, but require validation through implementation. They are based mainly on literature reviews and context studies. None of the models studied is based on a knowledge audit, nor are they designed to support the institution in university evaluation and accreditation processes.