In this study we explore the work and the cooperation of academic and industrial supervisors concerning single graduate students in so called industrial research schools, which are financially supported by a national research foundation and involve universities and industrial enterprises. Academic and industrial supervisors of totally eleven graduate students have been interviewed with focus on their cooperation. This cooperation entails negotiating the contract and monitoring the progress of the research project and the student. When students have problems this cooperation is particularly important. The places new demands on both the academic and industrial supervisors. In our study these demands were dealt with differently by different academic supervisors, depending whether their main orientation was towards industrial projects or traditional academic research. The way the industrial supervisors dealt with the new demands depended on their previous acquaintance with academic research, basically whether they had a doctoral degree or not. Another important finding was that academic knowledge had a strong position while the supervisors from the industry accepted a minor role. The main findings of the study are that industrial graduate students often require joint engagement in a way that differs from other forms of knowledge transfer between the academy and the industry. To explain the features of this type of knowledge transfer, we use the analytical concepts boundary subject and phronesis.

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The authors look at the learning context for 23 industrial doctoral students and assess the prerequisites for the development of their identity as researchers. The students are located in three different industrial research schools – Management, Medical Bioinformatics and Building and Indoor Climate. The purpose of the study is to describe the students' total learning environment and to ascertain what factors influence, hinder or encourage their development within the doctoral education process. To achieve this, the authors use Lave and Wenger's situated learning theory, conceptual framework and, in particular, trajectory concept (Wenger 1998, 2000). By following the students' histories, participation and ways of belonging to different communities of practice, and their aspirations, huge variations in their learning trajectories can be documented. Six typical cases are elaborated in detail, with a specific focus on the students' participation in and belonging to the environments involved. The procedures for thesis project selection and supervision are two of the five factors scrutinized. However, the trajectory concept, while helpful in the investigation, had to be complemented. Other elements that needed scrutiny were the effects of differences in knowledge formation, unequal power relations and fluctuations in market requirements. Internal business reorganizations that change the company's focus, interests and personnel policies, and which in turn influence the students ‘progress and prospects, were also considered.

This article reports on an empirical study of industry PhD students in the Swedish Graduate School for Applied IT and Software Engineering. The students were questioned in semi-structured interviews about their experiences of sharing their postgraduate studies between industrial and academic environments. The results from the first analysis indicate that there are considerable differences between companies in terms of their traditions and their propensity to take part in joint knowledge development with universities. Three types of company environment were identified in this context: (a) research-intense, (b) engineering and (c) consultancy. The focus of this study is on how the type of activity, the difference in time perspective between companies and universities, the competence of other company employees and the character of the thesis project affect the doctoral student's situation, identity, support and participation in knowledge development.