The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of gender in studying the internationalisation of doctoral education and understand the challenges of ‘gendering’ identities which may contribute to perpetuating global epistemic inequalities. Gender here refers to the socially constructed characteristics, associated with norms, behaviours and roles, attached to a gender identity. The sheer research on the intersection between gender and the internationalisation of higher education has been focused on gender inequalities, particularly centred on the professional profile of female academics and early-career researcher (Ackers, 2004; Vabø et al., 2014; Nikunen & Lempiäinen, 2020), and the general under-representation and lack of support for productivity and collaborationin the internationalisation process of higher education (Aiston & Jung, 2015; Huang et al., 2020; Kwiek & Roszka, 2020). However, studying gender within doctoral education setting does not attract equal attention and gender studies have shown little interest in exploring the role gendered identities plays in the narratives of internationalised doctoral education, specifically those related to the pedagogical encounters between doctoral supervisors and international students, in British and European universities. There is an evident gap in this area of research.

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