Constructing the Image of the Global University Through Its Official Website (Based on “About” Pages)

P. 53–61.

Yulia N. Zemskaya, Evgeniya A. Kuznetsova, Osmolovskaia A.

The research aims to identify the themes that leading universities worldwide focus on when constructing their image. The authors selected 50 international universities, leaders in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) for the year 2023, for the research. The research was carried out using content analysis. The material for analysis included the headlines, subheadings, and links posted on the “About” pages of university websites. The authors compiled themes through which universities construct their image, including “Facts and figures,” “Leadership and management,” “History,” “Mission, vision, and values,” “People,” and others. The research yielded several conclusions. Leading global universities use a unified thematic model for image construction, addressing the same themes on the “About” pages of their websites. This suggests that the image, theoretically created to distinguish an organization from its competitors, can, in practice, be formed uniformly and in a templated manner. Thus, among the fifty universities that are global leaders in higher education, none have developed a unique image through a thematic model on the “About” page using an original set of topics.

Keywords: университет, имидж, image, website, вебсайт, University, Image communications, Thematic model, имиджевые коммуникации, тематическая модель

In book

University 4 and Educational Technology for Sustainable Development - Best Practices and Perspectives in Russia and Central Asia

Springer, 2025.