Next generation research on internationalisation, part 2
At the EAIE, we believe that advancing international higher education starts with empowering the people behind the ideas. Guided by this commitment, we were thrilled to announce our first round of EAIE Doctoral Research Grants winners in September 2025. The grants reflect our commitment to inspiring and uniting the community throughout the year by connecting professionals, policy-makers and scholars through ideas that matter. This initiative helps open doors to new voices, fresh insights, and research that can shape a more inclusive and responsible future.
In this episode, part 2 of a short podcast series, we meet the final two of our five EAIE Doctoral Research Grants winners. Rúna Gudmarsdóttir (Tilburg University, Netherlands & Rannis) and Aurélie Kono (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland & Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany) join podcast host Laura Rumbley to introduce themselves and tell us more about their research projects. What sparked their interest in pursuing a doctoral degree, how do they expect their research to make an impact on actual practice within the field and what are they hoping to achieve during this year of EAIE funding?
About Rúna Gudmarsdóttir and Aurélie Kono
Aurélie Kono is a programme manager at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and a part-time PhD student in Education Management at the Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany. Before her current role, she worked in higher education institutions in Japan and Germany, gaining experience in programme and enrolment management, international student recruitment and international cooperation and partnerships. Aurélie holds a joint MA in International Education Management, with distinction, from the Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany and Helwan University, Egypt. She also earned an online diploma in Management of Higher Education Internationalisation from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico and a BA in Foreign Languages, Literature and History from the Catholic University of the West, France.
Rúna Vigdís Gudmarsdóttir is a PhD candidate at Tilburg University. She has worked on internationalisation in education since 2007, starting at the Icelandic National Agency for the Lifelong Learning Programme and later at the University of Iceland. From 2013 to 2017, she worked with the Erasmus+ Higher Education team at DG Education and Culture, focusing on programme management and impact assessment. In her role as the Director of the National Agency at Rannís, Rúna oversees all six sectors of Erasmus+ and represents Iceland in the European Network for the Recognition of Prior Learning (ERPL). Additionally, she serves as an administrator in the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) and co-leads a working group on social inequalities within the European Network for International Student Mobility (ENIS). Rúna holds an undergraduate degree from the Iceland University of Education and two master’s degrees in Intercultural Education from Freie Universität Berlin and Applied Linguistics from the University of Sussex.
Additional resources
For further insights into the topics touched on in this episode, the following resources may be of interest:
→ EAIE Research Snapshot library
→ Announcing the 2025 EAIE Doctoral Research Grant awardees
