Higher education emphasises training and skills for employment, yet while the "idea" of educating global citizens appears in university discourse, there is limited evidence demonstrating how the "idea" of the global citizen translates into practice. Recent research emphasises a desire for graduates to be local and global citizens with ethical and critical capacities for global workforce preparedness. The purpose of this paper is to explore the university responsibility for translating the "idea" of the ethical thinking global citizen into practice. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with higher education experts (n?=?26). The interpretive research is discussed through the themes: "Constructing the global citizen," "Enacting the global citizen," "Legitimating the global citizen" and "The sidelining context" (italics used to distinguish research themes in text). The paper contributes to higher education discourse on a contested and topical issue.