The concept of 'centre and periphery' has become ubiquitous in the study of higher education, especially in an international context. Through an engagement with the recent scholarly literature, we argue that simultaneously this concept has been decontextualised and naturalised. Its origins were largely forgotten and centre and periphery started to be descriptive of 'the way the world is'. This article argues for the de-naturalisation of this concept, through an exploration of its genealogy, and a critical analysis of the role concepts play in any theoretically grounded engagement with reality. To achieve that, we develop a heuristic of the critical cycle and we show alternative and powerful ways to engage with the concept 'centre and periphery'. We argue that critique of the concept should lead to alternative projects for higher education.