Experts

Kris Achten is a marketing strategist and consultant with over 20 years of experience in strategic positioning, brand narrative, and communication – across industries ranging from city marketing to higher education.

For 7 years, he led international student recruitment at KdG University of Applied Sciences in Antwerp – a non-ranked institution that, during his tenure, saw a 5x increase in international student intake. KdG was recognized as the most inclusive university in the world (Studyportals Global Student Satisfaction Award) and the top university of applied sciences in Europe (EduOpinions).

Before higher education, Kris connected over 6,000 creative entrepreneurs in fashion, design, advertising, music, and the arts for the City of Antwerp, helping position the city as Flanders’ creative capital. He has lectured and coached 500+ students and professionals in marketing, entrepreneurship, and strategic partnerships, and served as a startup mentor at Start it @KBC, Belgium’s largest startup accelerator – advising founding teams on positioning, messaging and go-to-market strategies.

Today, Kris works as an independent consultant and marketing strategist, helping organizations – including higher education institutions – find and own a distinctive market position.

The most perfectly executed campaigns and websites won’t help if you’re saying the same things as your competitors – and the stories you tell don’t resonate with the students you’re trying to reach. Work with Kris if you’re ready to take a stand and sharpen your story. Because when your positioning is right, everything you do in marketing and recruitment has more impact.

Oliver Matthews has worked for over 20 years in Higher Education in a variety of marketing, recruitment and admissions roles in 3 different countries, and has recruited students from markets all around the world. He has held management positions for 15 years in academic institutions, at the University of St.Gallen in Switzerland as Head of MBA Marketing and Admissions, and most recently as CMO and Vice-President at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

He has extensive experience across the full student life cycle at Universities and in particular has led major rebranding projects, worked extensively on CRM implementation and process design, ranking data analysis, prediction and institutional ranking strategy, programme and portfolio design. Most recently, he has been dedicating his time to the application of Generative AI in within university processes. Oliver is based in Frankfurt, Germany.

Ooi Lay Tin has been spearheading marketing strategy and initiatives for top-tier education brands for 35 years and counting. Her accumulated experience in the varied areas of marketing, branding, student recruitment and enrolment, business development, media relations and community engagement have allowed her to effectively engage and mobilise stakeholders towards favourable outcomes. In her position of leadership, she has successfully groomed teams while working alongside many international education partners.

Ooi has led and managed the digital marketing strategies, brand and positioning for Monash University Malaysia.

Previously, Ooi was also the Marketing and Sales Lead for the International Medical University, Taylor’s University College and ACCA Malaysia.

Subsequently, Ooi helmed the Sales & Marketing leadership role at the International University of Malaya-Wales, the commercial arm of Universiti Malaya (UM) and served as Regional Director for the Heriot-Watt University Malaysia. She has also done consultancy work for Keypath Education Australia, a leading global EdTech company, as well as with the University of Wollongong, Malaysia.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Ooi is an HRDC Accredited Corporate Trainer and holds an MBA specialising in Strategic Marketing from the University of Lincoln, UK. She is also an appointed UM ELITE Fellow (industry fellow).

Thijs van Vugt is an education marketing and student recruitment expert and the owner-director of iE&D Solutions BV. He has been a consultant since 2006. With over 36 years of experience in international education, he brings to the table experience as an entrepreneur, consultant, trainer, author and board member. Through iE&D Solutions Thijs not only supports universities with their marketing and recruitment endeavours, but also in building, managing and improving (new) teams.  

Thijs spent more than a decade with Studyportals, where he built and led the Analytics and Consulting team which delivers market insights for universities worldwide. 

Some of his recent clients include University of London, University of Glasgow, University of Bristol, University of Exeter, Durham University, University of Manchester, University of Kent, Karolinska Institute, Sciences Po, VU University Amsterdam, Rotterdam School of Management, the European Commission, UC Irvine, Colorado State University, UC Riverside, University of Auckland and ASML. 

Thijs is the founder of the Expert Community Marketing & Recruitment of the EAIE. He was chair of M&R (2002-2008) and a member of EAIE’s Executive Board (2004-2008). In 2006 he published a book on The Impact of Tuition Fees on International Student Recruitment and was co-author of Marketing Your University Internationally. In September 2009 was awarded the Bo Gregersen Award for Best Practice of the EAIE. And in 2025 the PIEoneer Award for Excellence in Data and Insight of the PIE News. 

Thijs holds a Master’s in International Economics from Tilburg University and post-graduate diplomas in Public Management (Tias Business School) and Customer Relationship Management (Beeckestijn Business School).

Dr. Vicky Lewis is an international education strategist and consultant with more than 30 years of experience across higher education, internationalisation, student recruitment, marketing and communications. She built her career in UK universities in Wales, Scotland and England, before launching Vicky Lewis Consulting in 2013. Since then, she has completed over 70 consultancy projects for higher education institutions at various stages of international maturity in the UK, Europe and beyond. 

Before becoming an independent consultant, Vicky spent nearly 20 years in university roles, including 13 years at University Leadership Team level at Bournemouth University. There, she established the International Office from scratch, later led a newly integrated International & Corporate Relations function, and eventually became Director of Marketing & Communications, with responsibility for an 80-person team and a multi-million-pound budget.  

Vicky holds a degree in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford and a Doctorate of Business Administration from the University of Bath, focused on the internationalisation strategies of UK universities. She regularly writes on international higher education, and brings a research-informed perspective to her work. In 2021, she published a sector report entitled UK Universities’ Global Engagement Strategies: Time for a rethink?  

Vicky is a member of the EAIE’s Thematic Committee on Leadership, Strategy and Policy.

Work with Vicky for: internationalisation strategy development; creation or review of international recruitment, partnerships or mobility strategies; research into transnational education opportunities; reviews of international relations office structures and operating models; workshops, webinars or presentations on international education strategy and practice.