This study explores the dynamics of higher education in global market with a particular emphasis on student decision-making processes and recruitment tactics. Using techniques for co-citation and co-word analysis, the research examines 6,326 documents that were pulled from Web of Science to identify major themes and developing patterns. The concepts in the field of student recruitment in higher education are revealed to be interconnected by our study, which also sheds light on important writers, foundational works, and changing research paths by co-citation analysis. The study provides insights into how student’s enrolment is changing in higher education and what influences their decision-making processes by clarifying the cooccurrence patterns of phrases and the connections between academic works. Furthermore, co-word analysis is employed to understand how each study theme has developed and to identify prospective avenues for future research.