In May 2022, in an online seminar organised by University of Kent, Prof Dina Zoe Belluigi and Dr Maurice Macartney (Public Affairs) from Queen’s University Belfast, shared and reflected on their recent work with a newly formed think tank, the Migrant and Minority Ethnic Council (MME) and problematised the dominant research commitment of Northern Ireland research-intensive universities which underserve local minority ethnic and migrant peoples. They shared stories and insights from their different perspectives, professional positions, social locations and realms of influence. Their praxes are underpinned by a concern for how universities serve the local good, and the aim of raising consciousness about the (re)productions of inequality, marginalisation, and methodological nationalism and whiteness by UK universities.