This study examines how Chinese and Western news media covered artificial intelligence (AI) privacy issues in higher education from 2019 to 2024. News articles were retrieved from Nexis Uni. First, non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) was employed to identify core AI privacy topics in university teaching, administration, and research. Next, a time trend analysis investigated how media attention shifted in relation to key events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of generative AI. Finally, a sentiment analysis was conducted to compare the distribution of positive, negative, and neutral reporting. The findings indicate that AI-driven proctoring, student data security, and institutional governance are central concerns in both Chinese and English media. However, the focus and framing differ: some Western outlets highlight individual privacy rights and controversies in remote exam monitoring, while Chinese coverage more frequently addresses AI-driven educational innovation and policy support. The shift to remote education after 2020 and the rise of generative AI from 2023 onward have intensified discussions on AI privacy in higher education. The results offer a cross-cultural perspective for institutions seeking to reconcile the adoption of AI with robust privacy safeguards and provide a foundation for future data governance frameworks under diverse regulatory environments.