Sociolinguistic analysis of the texts of university mission statements: axiological aspect

An interest in studying universities’ mission statements has been actualized by some changes in legislation on higher education institutions in Russia. The article deals with the mission statements of leading American universities which are investigated in terms of their thematic and axiological content. The texts analysis revealed the main topics of the missions, in particular “science”, “global arena”, and “responsible citizenship”, correlated with such values as obligation to society, possibility of realizing individual potential, importance of social capital. We have concluded that there is a need for studying international experience of creating university mission statements and for formulation of Russian universities’ mission statements in the conditions of growing internal competition and importance of academic mobility as one of the factors of university effectiveness.