Only one way to be a world-class university? Comparative analysis on the texts and visual images on websites of universities in China and South Korea

With the ubiquity of the internet in every domain of life, university websites are considered an effective tool to create institutional image and communicate with internal and external constituents. Focusing on websites of four universities in China and South Korea who seek to become World-class universities, this study examined how these universities portray themselves using texts and visual images on their websites. Utilizing Fairclough's three-dimensional critical discourse analysis, we found that all universities similarly used texts presenting their world-class status, and pictures showing their international engagement and research accomplishments. In spite of the different institutional and national settings and languages used (national versus English-language websites), little differences in the texts and visual images were found. Implications for the current discussion on WCUs and future research are elaborated.