Global citizenship means a lot of different things in different contexts, but its contested nature is seldom highlighted. A few years ago at Ustinov College, we were using the term but not clearly articulating what being a global citizen actually meant in our community. Gradually, new participants drew attention to the employability-focused representations of global citizenship in higher education, arguing that they were neoliberal and antithetical to global citizenship. We took this critique on board and dedicated a lot of time to critically exploring global citizenship, through seminars, workshops and training – and we set up the Ustinov Annual Conference specifically for this purpose.