Year of military studies

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 465, 8 December 1992, Page 10

Year of military studies

BY

JAN

SAVELL

"Army Officers are proving themselves an academic elite." Those are the words used by Waikato University staff who work with the Military Studies Centre in Waiouru to coordinate their academic programmes. "On average our students' results are one grade higher than the internal students," said Major Cliff Simons, Director for the Military Studies Centre. The Military Studies Centre (MSC) was set up in answer to a paper presented in the late 1980's which analysed officer educa-

tion m the New Zealand Army. It looked at the requirements and concluded that although Army officers were very capable they didn't have qualifications to prove it. "Compared to their contemporaries in other government departments they lacked the academic stamp of approval. The Military Secretary decided to put a selected group of officers through a more advanced course of study to enable them to command at the higher levels more effectively," Maj Simons said. "We began with a pilot group of just seven MA stu-

dents in 1991 and this was very successful. At the same time the military history course taught at Officer Cadet School was turned into a Waikato University paper." "1992 has been our first major year, with 38 enrolments for the MA course, 60 Officer Cadets taking the Military History paper and 95 others doing diploma papers." "The officers see it as a golden opportunity to get themselves a qualification. It is good to be able to walk out of the Army with a MA," Maj Simons explained.