Visual representations of multilingualism in academic spaces

Academic environments present distinctive sociolinguistic contexts where language choices are closely associated with institutional identity and communicative purposes. This study investigates multilingualism in the linguistic landscape (LL) of four universities in Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, data were collected through photographic documentation of university signage to identify languages and their functions. The findings show that while Indonesian remains dominant, the presence of English, Arabic, Latin, Javanese, Mandarin, German, and French reflects varying institutional orientations, values and identity constructions. Public universities predominantly use signage for informational purposes, whereas religious-based universities emphasize symbolic functions. These results highlight that language in academic public spaces serves not only as a medium of information but also as a visual resource to express institutional identity. Future research could examine stakeholder perspectives to better understand interpretations of LL in higher education.