Abstract Environmental and sustainability programmes in higher education have gained traction over the last several decades. More-than-disciplinary epistemologies and innovative pedagogies promise transformational learning to grapple with contemporary environmental challenges. Environmental programmes thus have implicit messages of social change. Evaluation, thus far, have tended to be methodologically partial, and neglects the student voice. In this paper, we present our co/autoethnography as two graduates of the Bachelor of Environmental Studies programme from the National University of Singapore. We critically reflect on our experiences in a capstone Environmental Studies module. Highlighting orthordoxies around discourses of ′behaviour′, the valorising of quantitative knowledges, and the ′tyranny of relevance′, we argue these neoliberal scripts limits the programme′s potential as an agent of social change. In concluding, we make the case for a more critical environmental education.