Being, becoming and brokering: Industrial PhD students’ positioning within industrial and academic communities

Doctorates conducted in industry-academia collaborations are on the rise, aiming to strengthen industry–academia connections, address real-world problems, and prepare students for industry careers. Students are expected to be brokers between two contexts—while learning brokering and becoming experts in both—yet little is known about what this entails in practice. Drawing on Wenger’s communities of practice (CoP) framework and using inductive thematic analysis, this study analysed interviews and community plots from 12 industrial PhD students in STEM to explore how students position themselves within and across academic and industrial communities. Participants experienced academia as stable and structured, whereas industry varied in expectations, support, and integration opportunities. Many had peripheral positions in at least one context, limiting possibilities for knowledge brokering. Brokering relied on students’ relational efforts rather than dual affiliations. Clearer expectations, stronger support structures and cultivation of CoPs—particularly in industry—are needed to support students’ boundary-spanning roles.