In this article we review the aims of the Critical Management Education project against the background of changes in the student population and increasing institutional pressures to protect sources of income. We revisit the foundations of the critical project in the contributions of radical – including critical management – educators, examine recent changes in the management education context and review the ways our theory and practice has responded and should respond to these changes. We call for the critical management education community to review the basis of its critical work with students if the ‘classroom’ is to remain an important site for criticality.