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The concept of a smart campus is rapidly gaining traction worldwide, driven by the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), along with the digital transformation of higher education institutions. While numerous initiatives have been undertaken to enhance the capability of smart campus systems to keep pace with AI advancements, there have been few attempts to develop a cohesive conceptual framework for the smart campus, and to date, there has been limited empirical research conducted to validate the framework. This study bridges this gap by providing the first in-depth assessment of a holistic smart campus conceptual framework. The paper uses a Delphi study approach to validate and consolidate a framework for assessing the robustness of the smart campus assessment framework for application in university settings. The framework consists of four domains, 16 categories, and 48 indicators, comprising a total of 68 items that were validated by experts across the globe. Two rounds of structured questionnaires were conducted to achieve consensus on the framework. The first round involved 34 experts from diverse geographic and professional backgrounds in the smart campus field. The second round included 21 of the earlier participants, which was sufficient to determine consensus. In total, seven of the forty-eight indicators were agreed upon after Round 1, increasing to forty-three after Round 2. The results indicate strong agreement among the experts, affirming the framework’s robustness. This study offers an expert-based, interpretive assessment of the development of the smart campus concept, with a particular focus on validating the smart campus framework.

Smart campus is an emerging concept enabled by digital transformation opportunities in higher education. Smart campuses are often perceived as miniature replicas of smart cities and serve as living labs for smart technology research, development, and adoption, along with their traditional teaching, learning and research functions. There is currently a limited understanding of how the smart campus is conceptualized and practiced. This paper addresses this gap by using a systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach. The study uses four major domains of the smart campus, i.e., society, economy, environment, and governance, to classify existing research. These domains are each aligned to the central smart campus concepts of digital technology and big data. The analysis found little evidence of a comprehensive real-world application of the smart campus towards addressing all four domains. This highlights the infancy of the current conceptualization and practice. The findings contribute to the development of a new conceptual foundation and research directions for the smart campus notion and informs its practice through a conceptual framework. The findings reported in this paper offer a firm basis for comprehensive smart campus conceptualization, and also provide directions for future research and development of smart campuses.