Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 23

ARMY UNIVERSITY

Prestige gap in military education. The military
community perceives that degrees and credentials from
Army academic institutions carry less weight and prestige than those granted by the academic community.
Army opinion surveys reflect that many soldiers do not
regard professional military education as rigorous, valuable, or prestigious.3 This perception that Army education lacks the academic rigor of equivalent programs in
civilian institutions is due to a misunderstanding of the
accreditation process within the military.
Poor accreditation. Agencies recognized by the
Department of Education accredit less than one-fourth
of existing Army education programs. This generates
an enormous hidden cost as soldiers pursue degrees
and skill-credentialing, needlessly having to complete
courses in civilian institutions similar to instruction
they already mastered in the military. It is not uncommon to find career noncommissioned officers with

ample credit hours of education for formal recognition
but no academic degree because those credit hours
were acquired across a career in different programs at
different installations. As a result, the Army routinely
funds unnecessary and redundant education programs
for soldiers because it has heretofore failed to provide
them with academic equivalency credit hours for their
Army education.

Why the Army Needs a University
Strategists dating back to Sun Tzu have argued that
victory in war goes to the society that can best employ
its inherent strengths to produce strategic advantage.
Winning in a complex world demands that our Army
finds and leverages the strengths of the United States
to produce a competitive military advantage.
Over the last three decades, the United States led the
world into the digital age by fostering a spirit of ingenuity,

(Photo by Dan Neal, Combined Arms Center)

Command and General Staff College students from the United States and the United Kingdom participate in Exercise Eagle Owl, 11
March 2015. The joint exercise was held in the recently upgraded classrooms of the Lewis and Clark Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2015

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