The media image of the higher education concept in the English, Chinese and Russian languages

The article considers the HIGHER EDUCATION (HE) concept in the media landscape of American, Chinese and Russian newspapers. The material for the research comprised 273 news articles over the period 2010-2023, containing the keyword ‘higher education’ in their headlines. The research methods included continuous sampling, content analysis, thematic classification, problem identification, keyword selection, and contrastive analysis. The findings show that the number of Chinese news articles with HE in their headlines is considerable higher (approximately by 70%) than in the American and Russian newspapers. This phenomenon is explained by the positioning of HE as a vector of national economy development in China. The Chinese concept HE includes a wide access to HE, active international collaboration and the development of Chinese regions. The American concept HE is exposed as the sum total of social-economic issues caused by insufficient financial resources and unequal opportunities for different demographic categories. The concept HE in the Russian media space is represented as a phenomenon providing opportunities for personal development and career growth. Intercultural similarities and differences are identified in the language representations of the most relevant semantic relations. The common conceptual properties across the cultures are HE quality improvement and the compliance of graduates with labor market requirements.