Syllabus-boundness constitutes an important attribute of a so-called surface approach to learning, whereby students are seen as highly assessment-oriented, doing what is minimally required from them, and wanting well-organized courses and clear instructions. When this concept emerged in the late 1960ies, it was linked to a discussion on issues of authoritarianism and the ways in which the boundaries of the syllabus are tightly linked to authoritative knowledge and authority figures. However, over the years, this particular aspect of syllabus-boundness has largely faded away in the literature. Based on this turn in the literature, the purpose of this paper is twofold, namely: (1) To argue for a reintroduction of issues related to authoritarianism into the debate on syllabus-boundness, and (2) Based on a qualitative study of higher education students at a Swedish university, to identify and discuss how the conceptual borders of syllabus-boundness can be widened to include aspects of authority-boundness.