Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 27

ARMY UNIVERSITY

facilitating pilot programs. This empowers
subordinate schools through shared understanding, building a network both within The
Army University and with other universities.

Resourcing Strategy

The 2014 Army Strategic Planning
Guidance identifies the education of adaptive
leaders as the Army’s number-one strategic
priority.11 Achieving this goal will require
sustained investment. Recognizing this
change is being initiated during a period of
fiscal austerity, a phased approach will defer
initial costs through internal reprograming as
new ways of operating are tested. After two
years of experience with the university concept, we will have a better sense of the minimum essential administrative requirements.
The ultimate goal is to improve the overall
quality of educational outputs through better
use of existing resources.12

Promoting Real Change in
Army Education

The Army University is more than just a
name change and a staff reorganization. As
the university matures, it will drive a number
of substantive changes in Army education.
World class faculty. Superior teaching quality is
a key driver for a university to achieve excellence.13
The Army University faculty includes a stable core of
subject matter experts who are skilled in facilitating
adult learning, augmented by military personnel with
recent operational experience.14 While tremendous
faculty fill our academic programs today, preserving
and expanding that talent in a very competitive labor
market requires significant effort. Increasing faculty
development will provide substantial benefit to the
operating force in other ways as the military faculty
return to the force with improved communication,
critical thinking, and research skills. The Army
University and the Army G-1 are working together to
develop policies and regulations that attract, develop,
and retain the right mixture of talented and relevant
civilian and military faculty. Without an investment
in faculty excellence, no amount of restructuring will
produce the results we seek.
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2015

(Photo by Sgt. Ricardo Branch, 8th Theater Sustainment Command PAO)

Staff Sgt. Joel Velez, a small group leader, teaches Warrior Leader Course
students how to plot eight-digit grid coordinates 11 January 2010 at the Noncommissioned Officer Academy Hawaii at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

External collaboration. The Army University
leverages external collaboration to promote internal
excellence through developing faculty exchanges,
combined forums, and joint research. Tremendous
opportunity exists with both public and private universities for training, cooperative education, research,
internships, and more. At the same time, this network
of partnerships connects the Army to an important
segment of the society it serves.
Accreditation. One of the most exciting benefits of
The Army University is its ability to drive comprehensive, nationwide accreditation for Army schools and
training. Rigorous external accreditation improves the
quality of our programs, reduces educational expenses, and enables soldiers to leave the military “career
ready.”15 Equally important, The Army University
also enables Army civilians to receive academic credit for professional military education. Accreditation
increases recruitment and retention for both military
and civilian cohorts by providing another venue to
25