This study explores Lleida (Catalonia) and Cardiff (Wales) University international and home students' comprehension of an ‘international university’, and its effects on the respective minority languages. Lleida home students linked international universities with chances for travel, exchange and employment benefits much more than the other groups, whereas Lleida international students expressed greater negativity and resistance towards the minority language than other groups. This underscores the problems in atoning minority language vivacity with internationalisation forces and primacies.