The open data (OD) initiative fosters open access to public information in an organization. It is a relatively new but very significant and potentially powerful approach that starts being adopted in different organizations. In the context of higher education, the adoption of this initiative starts being reported in the literature. In order to get a better understanding of open data (OD) in higher education, we conducted a systematic literature review. From a sample of 595 papers, we identified and selected 25 relevant papers for the review. Our findings suggest that open science, open government, and open university are main reasons to adopt OD. Models, frameworks, methods, and standards about OD have been adopted in higher education context. Different technological tools have been used for: data modeling, RDF data generation, data publishing, linking, and exploitation. However, some issues have been reported in the moment of adopting OD initiatives, mainly related to intellectual property, standardization, legal and operation aspects. Finally, the largest number of OD initiatives reported in the context of higher educations have been applied in European countries.