Unravelling the rhetoric of the global citizen

Universities frequently claim to educate global citizens yet there is limited policy-to-practice evidence. This study examined how 26 international industry key informants conceptualise the global citizen in higher education. The qualitative interpretive study supported the moral and transformative cosmopolitan nature of the global citizen as the ‘ideal global graduate’. This contribution proposes that the holistic disposition of the global citizen is underpinned by the thinking capacities of the social imaginary, reflexivity, relationality and criticality. These capacities enable the student mindset to flourish as global citizens and offers insight to educating global citizens for uncertain futures.