Play has often been disassociated with learning as a frivolous activity for children set outside of learning environments. In the past decades, this view has changed from research and scholarship on play, relating it to learning and development. This paper takes the point of departure that playful learning offers potential for higher education from its less-goal-directed approach to training. Through this, play provides learning potential well suited to the higher levels of learning taxonomies that higher educational systems strive for. The counterintuitive potentials of playful learning for higher education are presented in the paper, showing how playful learning can provide training for engagement in uncertain environments and foster students towards becoming the creative problem-solving agents sought after in the knowledge sector.