While the history of British higher education is not an unexplored field, this article offers a new perspective by focusing on the development of institutional self-representations. Based on the analysis of 133 undergraduate prospectuses of English and Welsh higher education institutions, the article investigates how higher education and the depiction of it have changed over the last 80 years. By concentrating specifically on what the prospectuses communicated concerning the purpose of higher education, the student experience and the power relations that structure higher education, it is shown how fundamentally the nature and understanding of higher education have altered over time and how much the institutions of higher education themselves contributed to these changes.