This article presents the main results of a pilot study of the concept sphere “subjects of educational activity” through an associative experiment. Students of the Crimean Federal University named after V. I. Vernadsky were involved as respondents. The resulting lexical associative material was analyzed and interpreted according to the criteria of compliance with various macro- and microcomponents of the concepts structure: “school”, “university”, “higher education institution”, “teacher”, “professor”, “pupil”, “student”. The core and periphery of these concepts are identified and described. The structure of each concept was investigated in accordance with the following criteria: a figurative component, differential encyclopedic features set of the concept, an interpretation field, which includes utilitarian, general evaluative, regulatory, socio-cultural, mythological and identification zones. As a result of the analysis of the associative reactions of the respondents, the hypothesis about the differences in the structure of the studied concepts was confirmed. The semantic features of verbal reactions, the mode of emotivity, as well as their correlation with the paradigmatic or syntagmatic type have been determined. Obvious differences are revealed mainly in the interpretational field of the considered concepts. The structure study of the concepts school, university, higher education institution, teacher, professor, pupil in an associative experiment allows us to describe their significant cognitive and perceptual features, thereby contributing to the description of the “state of affairs” in the education system through the eyes of students. This approach helps to identify the most problematic, confrontational zones in the interaction of educational activity with real subjects. One of these problems is the predominantly negative perception by the respondents of such subjects of educational activity as the teacher and the school.