Efforts to emphasize higher education's role in development have grown in recent years, but important questions remain about the motivations and effects of these initiatives. In this paper, we employ the concept of a 'modern/colonial global imaginary' to consider the impact of the enduring power relations and uneven politics of knowledge in the relationship between higher education and development. Specifically, we consider the Association of Commonwealth Universities' (ACU) 'Beyond 2015' campaign, which was launched in anticipation of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals. We argue that despite the ACU's intention to provide 'a platform for diverse voices, particularly from the global South', the campaign was structured in a way that discouraged dissenting perspectives. More broadly, we consider available possibilities and limitations for challenging mainstream development agendas.