The Army Establishes The Army University

"The U.S. Army announced the establishment of the Army University on July 7th, 2015. Army University is modeled after several successful U.S. state university systems that have fostered greater instructional efficiency and research capability by incorporating state administered teaching institutions under a single centralized system of management and resourcing. Similarly, Army University now is charged with directly integrating 70 separate U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) internal school programs under one university system while also synchronizing instruction with more than 100 additional TRADOC institutions."
The Army Establishes The Army University | US Army Combined Arms Center

 

Seemingly the Army has incorporated a very similar structuring to the Marine Corps University (established 1989).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_University
https://www.mcu.usmc.mil/

 

I would love to see Army University provides higher education degrees, at least from Certificate, Associate, Bachelor, Master and maybe professional Doctorate degrees. Also, allow students to transfer credits from non-traditional sources to lower the student tuition costs as the same time, service members are not going for university like Ashford, Phoenix and etc.

When I was on active duty with the Marine Corps, I had to go through Troy University to complete this path. I hope Army University provides better way for service members, family, and veterans to obtain educational credentials for today workforce.

 

Air University: 1946

The Air Force created the first degree-granting, credit-awarding college for enlisted personnel, based on their military training, in 1974. I believe we're still waiting for a second service.

 

The Army does offer graduate degrees as does the Marine Corps University: E.g., the 1) Army Command and General Staff College offers the M.M.A.S. (Master of Military Art and Science) Master of Military Art and Science (MMAS) Degree | US Army Combined Arms Center and the Army War College offers the M.S.S. (Master of Strategic Studies) (via resident or DL) USAWC - MEL-1 Education Programs.

Even so, these particular graduate degree programs are definitely professional military focused and limited to the military officer corps (domestic and foreign) and selected mid- to senior-level Federal /Govt. employees.

The Naval Postgraduate School offers a more diverse choice in degree selection areas Naval Postgraduate School - Academics at NPS.

 

I believe you're correct Rich ... still waiting. :smoker:

 

They do, but really limited to Enlisted member. I don't think a Private First Class who enters service with a Bachelor degree could start his or her Master degree studies at those institutions.

 

Those particular graduate programs are beyond being "limited" to current enlisted military personnel; they're not available at all. I previously mentioned this, e.g., "Even so, these particular graduate degree programs are definitely professional military focused and limited to the military officer corps (domestic and foreign) and selected mid- to senior-level Federal /Govt. employees."

 

There are also quite a few academies of sorts across all the branches which grant ACE credits for their courses. That has been around for quite some time.

Have a great Air Force day!

 

When I was an undergraduate and an enlisted member, Regents (now Excelsior) had a policy that they would only accept Air Force credits from CCAF--vice the ACE recommendation. This was a problem since CCAF, as a community college, only awarded lower-division credits while ACE sometimes recommended some upper division credits.

CCAF also limits severely the number of 'nontraditional' credits (their term) that can be applied towards their associate's degrees. As some readers might recall, I did almost all of my two bachelor's degrees by testing. As a result, I didn't get my CCAF associate's until I was in graduate school (and could apply some of my credits from my MBA). By then it was OBE.

 

I cannot glean what you are using the acronym OBE for in this case. My favorite is Overcome By Events. Here's a nice list of a few others. It is one of these?

Rank Abbr. Meaning

OBE Order of the British Empire

OBE Out of Body Experience

OBE Outcome-Based Education

OBE Online Booking Engine

OBE Overcome By Events

OBE Overtaken By Events

OBE On-Board Equipment

OBE Operating-Basis Earthquake

 

Yup. I never found a use for it.

 

I wish that the Army had something comparable to the CCAF when I was in. In my undergrad program, I only got 4 credits for Army Basic Training (PE credits); how they arrived at 4 credits instead of 3 or 6 is beyond me. I got nothing for Military Police School or any other training.

Of course, knowing what I know now, I might have gone Air Force instead of Army to begin with, but I can't complain with the way things have turned out.

 

Hopefully this new Army University doesn't model everything after Air University (CCAF) as it always bothered me how the AF would put more merit/ emphasis of an associates degree from CCAF then they would a bachelors from anywhere else; at least as far as promotional potential was concerned in senior enlisted positions. Good for the Army though, I've always been a fan of military colleges.

I'm the first in my family to ever graduate from college. God knows I wouldn't have any formal education if it wasn't for the military and the POST 9/11 GI Bill. :unitedstates:

 

This was my criticism of CCAF (found earlier in this thread) for decades. Throughout my career, both enlisted and commissioned, that the Air Force did not place a strong emphasis on higher education for its enlisted personnel. In fact, the CCAF AAS (I have one) was seen as a membership card more than an educational accomplishment. Check the box.

The opportunities for getting an education beyond CCAF were lame. Sure, you could use tuition assistance and go to night school for the rest of your life, but they've even put annual limits (and per-credit tuition caps) on that. The scholarship opportunities were always incredibly slim. The vast majority of them were in engineering.

The Air Force was even stingy with the GI Bill. (Each service decides eligibility for it.) I served an entire career and never got it. Never. Ironically, when I was an education specialist, I processed hundreds of applications for benefits under the GI Bill, but I never got it myself.

No, the Air Force has always been interested in the technical training of its enlisted force--which is first-rate--but little else in terms of their development. For that, members are largely on their own.

 

As an Army type you didn't miss much. When I tried to transfer my CCAF credits to my junior college back home, they basically gave me a few PE credits for basic training and transferred all my other credits into elective credit. Which didn't help me at all, and by the time I finished my associates I had over 92 semester units. (Many of which was an abundance of elective credits courtesy of CCAF)
at:

 

Strategic Business Plan for the Army University
March 16, 2015
http://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/publications/20150331_SIGNED_FINAL_Strategic_Business_Plan_for_the_%20Army_University%28Unrestricted%29.pdf

 

Here's an update article

Collaboration helps shape Army University | Article | The United States Army

 

Waxing a bit philosophically, in my experience most military education is geared toward SOPs. Learn the step actions. Do it. Move out. Do not ask why, or learn what to do if there are any deviations. Much of that is not useful in real world.
My concern is Army U will go down that path.

 

Honestly, I'd love to see a joint-branch university that was primarily focused on educating enlisted personnel (like the CC of the AF).

I was handed a SMART transcript with course recommendations that no school other than the Big Three might even cast a second glance at. On-base offerings were usually crap and were damn near impossible to be able to schedule around if you could get CoC permission to attend.

We had Navy Knowledge Online when I was in and you had access to a pretty big skillsoft library but none of them were ACE recommended so they were hit or miss if you could do anything with them.

I just think that if there was a joint initiative and they aligned military training with some lower division coursework a bit more effectively it would be ideal. If earning a bachelors degree during your four year hitch was a reasonable option without having to just enroll in a program in your off hours, I think that recruitment and retention would be a lot easier.

Besides, it would be kind of nice to walk out with a snazzy diploma to go with your DD 256.