Previously, it has been shown that undergraduate student experience is enhanced by collaborations in teaching between institutions across the 1992 divide (Freestone et al., 2012). Postgraduate experiences during PhD programmes were hypothesised to be similarly enhanced following collaboration across institutions. This study investigates the views of Ph.D students regarding such collaboration between institutions. Ph.D students from a pre-1992 institution, the University of Oxford (n = 10) and from a post-1992 institution, Kingston University (n = 10) were randomly chosen and semi-structured interviews, questionnaire responses and field notes were used as data sources. The opinions with regard to attending two collaborative research institutions were positive from both groups, however, the reasoning behind these views differed. Kingston University as a newer university was perceived by its students to have a more relaxed attitude in terms of its research community and working ethos. Collaborative institutions were favoured greatly due to the more specialised and established laboratories available to them however travel between institutions was potentially a burden especially in terms of transportation of necessary materials. Kingston University students were also keen to be exposed to a more tightly knit and “research focused” environment where the majority of the Principal Investigators shared an office environment with their PhD students or postdoctoral fellows. Restricted access to the laboratory facilities at Kingston University at un-sociable hours was a common complaint from the students. On the other hand, pre-1992 institutions such as the University of Oxford allow 24 hour access to the research workplace. Ph.D students from the University of Oxford regard collaboration between institutions as a means of networking within their research field giving them more exposure to other experts in their specific area of study. However, the disadvantage here seems to be about intellectual property rights when it comes to collaboration between institutions. Both the pre- and post-1992 institutions studied agreed that collaboration could lead to opportunities to be able to learn additional novel research methods that may be an asset for the student later on. Overall, the results obtained from the postgraduate students’ research may have the potential to be of higher quality and might therefore increase the chances of publication of research data. Furthermore, the collaborative institutions, which are usually pre-1992 institutions, are attractive to prospective employers and hence employment prospects are maximised.