This article examines the issue of coverage of events in the life of the Petrograd University in the focus of the periodical press in the First World War from October 1914 to December 1915. Authors discuss the main discourses, reflected in the newspapers of various political positions. According to the authors, the internal life of the Petrograd University of the Empire does not undergo significant changes during the first years of the war. Professors continue to fight for academic autonomy at the same time with the change of Minister of education pinning hope on cooperation with the authorities. The University becomes a center of patriotism, providing all possible assistance to the Russian army through fundraisers, the wounded, connected to the universal drive to create «enemy image» and the «fight against German dominance», but does not want to abandon the usual corporate structure (position on the attitude to the recruitment of students, establishment of the medical faculty, etc.). In this context, the University continues to be «ivory tower», which will be lost in the near future.