Bridging Academia and Industry through Work-Integrated Education: A Case Study of the RDI Project in Thailand

Thailand’s Research Development and Industrialization (RDI) Project offers a novel model of workintegrated education to strengthen industrial innovation and workforce capacity. Led by the National Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Policy Council (NXPO), the initiative embeds graduate students within enterprises to perform diagnostics, support innovation, and conduct applied research aligned with industry needs. Using the CIPP evaluation framework and thematic analysis of $\mathbf{3 8}$ stakeholder interviews, the study finds that $20-30 \%$ of student-led innovations were adopted by host firms, several projects led to peer-reviewed publications, and 23% of interns were recruited full-time. Key enablers include enterprise collaboration, expert mentorship, and innovation consultants, while challenges relate to supervision burden.