This viewpoint article provides a critical reflection on the gatekeeping and academic language practices of Anglophone universities, evaluating these in light of the promotional claims universities make about internationalization and global reach. I then consider the arguments put forward in each of the main articles in this special issue from this critical perspective, connecting the authors' accounts of EMI practices in transnational higher education contexts with the language requirements and practices of the Anglophone university. I argue that there is considerable overlap between the concerns of stakeholders in EMI settings and those of international students and academics in Anglophone universities in a UK setting. I find that the English language requirements for admissions as well as orientations to academic language in higher education curricula can in EMI settings and 'international' Anglophone universities alike be underpinned by language ideological positions that do not reflect an especially global outlook, and that remain in many senses tethered to 'native' language and 'native' academic discourse norms.