The discourse of the internationalisation of higher education continues to grow in influence. Whilst the bulk of the IHE literature has been Northern-focused and dominated, there was an African strand a decade or so ago that has sought to understand what the discourse means in African contexts, shaped profoundly as they have been by colonialism. This debate is ripe for revisiting given the very different context of the post-2015 period and a return to debates about the decolonisation of African higher education. Through an exploration of the case of Zimbabwe, we question of whether IHE discourses and practices can be placed at the service of development alternatives in spite of their Northern neoliberal roots and whether, therefore, there may be a new notion emerging of a development university that is grounded both in local and global contexts.