Universities are increasingly urged to take new responsibilities as agents of internationalisation as the globalisation of higher education intensifies the competition for international students and leads to transformation of national and European policy landscapes. Drawing on the case study of two leading universities in Denmark, this paper analyses how they navigate between ‘being internationalised’ and ‘doing internationalisation’ in this context and adjust their practices for attracting international students. It concludes by assessing factors that influence the universities' ability to act as agents of internationalisation and draws attention to the implications that these carry for understanding international student mobility in general.