As knowledge transfer between higher education institutes and industry becomes increasingly important, doctoral education needs to prepare graduates to interact with and work across different employment sectors. Work integrated learning (WIL) is used at other education levels to prepare students for the broad world of work and it is proposed that it could be valuable at the doctoral level too. However, there is limited research addressing the benefits of WIL at the doctoral level and, in particular, in research-based doctorates. Through the analysis of 51 different WIL examples aimed at PhD students, this paper considers how WIL is described in the context of doctoral education, with a focus on what the reported benefits of participation are for PhD students, universities, and employers. The creation of a reusable framework, including six broad themes to consider in the design of WIL elements for PhD students, underpins this comparative analysis. The six themes were identified to represent the potential benefits that appeared most often in the WIL examples and then categorized based on if the themes were generic benefits of WIL or specific to doctoral education. Generic benefits of WIL far outnumbered references to benefits specific to doctoral education. Of the generic benefits, employability was found to be most prevalent as a benefit of WIL followed by networking and collaboration, and then application of knowledge. The PhD-specific theme found most often was research followed by knowledge transfer, and then knowledge creation and innovation. WIL has the potential to strengthen doctoral training overall and prepare PhD graduates to take on key roles in knowledge creation and transfer across sectors. However, as seen in the analysis, examples of WIL for PhD students primarily focus on generic benefits like employability which fails to distinguish the potential contributions and distinct learning requirements of PhD students from students at other education levels. Ideally, WIL should provide both generic and PhD specific benefits in order for it to fit into and complement doctoral education. The six identified areas or themes can be applied as a framework to describe, evaluate, and compare different WIL examples. The framework can also be used in future research to understand how WIL at the doctoral level is distinguished from WIL at other educational levels and determine how WIL contributes to various learning outcomes.

Keywords: Work Integrated learning, Doctorate, Knowledge Transfer, PhD students.