<p>Academia and higher education have increasingly emphasised the importance of global competence, driven by university efforts aimed at cultivating students capable of engaging with global sustainable development, which largely relates to pragmatic frameworks oriented towards the competitiveness of students and institutions. Informed by a theoretical exploration of global competence, this qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews to investigate the development of such competence among 21 students at three Chinese universities, situated within an international and multilingual environment, and examined the challenges they encountered. These challenges arose from pragmatic educational rationales; unbalanced geo-power relations; uneven access to international resources; foreign language and intercultural barriers; as well as familiar Chinese social, cultural, and educational norms and habits. This study presents recommendations for (Chinese) university educational policies and practices aimed at fostering dedicated (rather than pragmatic) and inclusive international, multilingual, and decolonised curricula, programmes, and learning environments. It emphasises the necessity of pedagogical support that encourages students to critically engage with significant global issues through an interdisciplinary lens within international and multilingual contexts. This support also involves minimising challenges related to pragmatic educational rationales, geo-power influences, insufficient foreign language competence, and cultural factors. Doing so may help nurture globally competent students who are capable of critical examination, understanding diverse international perspectives, engaging in effective intercultural interactions, and exercising social and moral agency to foster responsible action towards global sustainable development.</p>