A comparative study of the cognitive conceptualization of "university" in the discourses of reformism, fundamentalism, and moderation

The university is a social organization with important social roles, and any change of attitude towards it can have serious consequences. In the last two decades, different approaches of governments have led to fundamental changes in higher education policies, which have had some negative consequences for higher education. As conceptual metaphor is a way to understand abstract concepts through concrete concepts, it is possible to reach the fundamental thought behind these policies through metaphorical analysis.Therefore, this article wants to examine the attitude of the three discourses of reformism, fundamentalism and moderation towards "university" and answer the question of how university as a place of higher education in the speech of the representatives of these three discourses. The cognitive landscape is conceptualized. To answer this question, an attempt was made to study their positions towards higher education by using the method of qualitative analysis of conceptual metaphors based on "university" and how they are used in all three discourses.In terms of theoretical framework, this research is based on Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and in terms of methodology, it is based on Chartris Black (2004).The ratio of the occurrence of the word "university" to the whole corpus was about 0.21% and the highest frequency of use was related to moderates.Among other findings, we can mention the one-dimensional field of origin of "human" in the conceptualization of the university in three political currents.The humanism of the university makes it possible to have an ideological view of the university.