ABSTRACT : Agile is embraced by industries of all kinds and all sizes of organizations from software development to general management. Agile practices brought technology-enabled platforms which disrupt existing industry structures and enable businesses to meet the faster changing customer’s expectations. To satisfy the constantly changing needs of business, higher education institutions have initiated some agile practices. However, their normally bureaucratic management style which is often a slow, laborious process is in stark contrast to the agile organization. In order to facilitate the research on how to embrace agile in higher education management, this paper reviewed the history and concept of agile, introduced the agile values, principles, methods and described the characteristics of agile organizations. The paper also reviewed agile assessing tools used by various consulting firms. The research concluded that leaders and practitioners in higher education had initiated agile to meet the demands of the business and labor market but the journey for higher education to embrace agile had just started. Further educational reforms, especially the organizational structure reforms are still needed to be enacted. This literature review provides important academic and practical value to the future research and practices in agile management area, especially, the agile higher education management.

KEYWORDS – Agile, Agile Values and Practices, Assessing Agile, Higher Education.