Background: Outsourcing the principal mission of universities, namely instruction, is a new and rather disputable concept which was highly regarded in recent years in terms of the increased number of university students, the necessity of improvement of educational quality, as well as the need for further emphasis on the improvement of efficiency in higher education. This scoping review aims to identify and investigate the higher education outsourcing models in higher education.

Methods: Articles for outsourcing higher education were extracted through Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, EMBASE, and ERIC with the inclusion criteria of the English language. The third type of Arksey & O'Malley's framework (2005) was used to analyze the articles.

Results: Eleven articles and ten models were identified, including swirling model, program outsourcing model, course outsourcing model, full-service contracting model, specialized trainer model, business-like model, tutoring model, workforce model, Internet-based distance education approach, and deemed university model. Depending on the educational tasks that are outsourced, the outsourcing partner, the kind of outsourced services, and the instructional approach, these models have significant variances and similarities.

Conclusion: Different models might be applied for a given purpose based on the outsourced services' nature, outsourcing objectives, country's current conditions, the capacity of the outsourcing universities, as well as available high-capability institutes.