This article aims to provide a systemic instrument to evaluate the functioning of higher education systems. Despite systemic instruments have had a strong impact on the management of public policy systems in fields such as health and innovation, higher education has not been widely discussed in applying this type of instrument. Herein lies the main gap that we want to close. The ultimate purpose of the evaluation instrument introduced here is thus to provide information for decision-makers, so these can identify the strengths/weaknesses in the functioning of their respective higher education systems from a systemic perspective. To achieve the previous goal, we apply the methodological guidelines of the integrative review of the literature. An integrative review of the literature was chosen because it guides the extraction of quantitative evidence from the literature and its classification, with the purpose of integrating the results into an analytical framework. This resulting analytical framework is what we have labelled as the systemic evaluation instrument. The article makes three contributions to the literature. First, the different types of higher education institutions considered in the literature and the higher education systems analysis scales are evidenced. Second, we identify the capacities and functions examined by the literature so that higher education institutions and higher education systems can fulfil their missions. Third, a systemic evaluation framework for higher education institutions and higher education systems is presented. The article concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges associated to the implementation of such a systemic framework for policymaking.