This paper discusses some perspectives on Citizenship Education in Turkey and Britain in the context of current contested discourses on the nature of European identity and of the European Union. It is based on data collected during an EU funded postgraduate student exchange programme between three Universities in Turkey and Leicester University, England (UK). The programme facilitated participants’ investigations of their understandings of citizenship and Citizenship Education in Britain and Turkey. Data was collected by questionnaire from 581 Turkish university students and 85 British postgraduate students involved with Citizenship Education and, during the exchange visits, through focus group interviews with 14 British and 14 Turkish postgraduate students. All student groups thought citizenship education was a key to creating ‘good citizens’ in their countries, but the nature of this citizenship was perceived to differ between countries. Turkish undergraduate and postgraduate students placed a strong emphasis on national identity and Turkish citizenship whilst British students focused more on democracy, social justice, global citizenship and human rights. Students from both countries questioned the efficacy of the pedagogical approaches that they observed during school visits in each others’ countries.