University challenge?

The Defence Academy is an evolving organisation that seeks 'to be a national and international centre of excellence providing military and civilian personnel with high-quality education, primarily at postgraduate level, and conducting research in fields related to defence'. It brings together:

• Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) (London)
• Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC)
• Royal Military College of Science (RMCS)
• Defence Leadership Centre (DLC)
• Conflict Studies Research Centre (CSRC) (Camberley)
• Defence School of Finance and Management (DSFM) (Worthy Down)
• Acquisition Training Cell (ATC) (Bath)
• Welbeck College (Worksop).

Its first Director is Sir Roger Jackling - ex-Second Permanent Under Secretary at the MoD and possessor of an impressive academic and professional background. His first six months have seen him implement the Chief of the Defence Staff's directive to be responsible for the outputs of all the colleges, to command them and to hold the budget; and to make these changes at no cost to the Department.

He talks of 'a federation, trying to achieve added value in way that doesn't lose the individual identities of the colleges. We are moving forward but with respect for the differences between the three Services and the civil Service.

'There was no blueprint or clear description. The proposal for the Academy grew from an idea that bringing together three colleges could produce something more than the sum of their parts. We should exploit synergies and rationalise duplication - not that there was much of the latter. This academy identity would do things single colleges could not. Like research. A great deal goes on in the colleges here, and with their academic partners: Kings College, London and Cranfield University. And both these institutions also have links with ministries and defence industry.'

RCDS is at the top of the UK military's learning curve. Its one-year course aims to develop the analytical powers, strategic vision, and knowledge of defence and international security of nearly 100 senior officers - Brigadiers and Colonels and equivalent - Civil Servants and people from industry. Students are generally in their early forties and half come from overseas. Attendance is a definite plus on any CV.

Jackling believes that: 'Policy-makers have not always taken advantage of very bright directing staff, academic staff and students. They are reading, discussing and generating ideas, and the MoD has not done enough to harvest them. I want to see more interaction between problem-solvers in London and thinkers at the Academy. I would like to see us brainstorming ideas here if we can fit this into a crowded syllabus and the staff college MA.'

The cormorant badge of the Joint Services Command and Staff College represents a creature that operates on land, sea and air - allegedly! With possibly the best military accommodation in the UK, its 2,000-plus residential students each year, including many from abroad, are divided between three Command and Staff Courses. Higher - 30 Brigadiers and Colonels and equivalent - is a three-month, joint course preparing them for formation staff and command jobs. It focuses on the operational level in a strategic context.

The Advanced course, of 330 Lieutenant Colonels and Majors and equivalent, is again joint and lasts 46 weeks. The ten-week Foundation Phase introduces tri-Service and multinational thinking, and the Single Component Phase of 14 weeks then allows each Service to teach its own officers about the issues they need to develop their careers. Finally, Joint Studies distils and refines this brew in a multinational and strategic context. Along the way, some extra work will gain a Diploma in Defence Studies with a little more resulting in an MA from Kings College.

Junior courses are run by each single Service, taking Captains and equivalent through their own basic command and staff training modules so they are ready for higher-level appointments. Course lengths vary between four and 41 weeks, and the programme represents the first step on a ladder that eventually reaches RCDS.

Some things, we are glad to report, do not change. Observant visitors will notice a stuffed sheep's head amongst the students of the Army's Junior Course in the photograph taken to commemorate the official opening of the Academy, with the Duke of Edinburgh in the front row surrounded by assorted senior officers. This was 'Brian', carried everywhere by the course to represent the Army contingent deployed on the foot and mouth outbreak.

The College is run as a partnership with Defence Management (Watchfield) Ltd - specially formed for the contract. Facilities are spectacular and include a 450-seat lecture auditorium, floors of other theatres, classrooms and meeting rooms, en-suite accommodation and smaller rooms for married people on courses, dining facilities to meet every taste, and a well-appointed gym that is 'leaping' at peak times. The only problem reported is that, in these democratic days, senior officers can find themselves behind juniors in the mess queue and button-holed on the route to and from lectures.

Plans for JCSC also envisage a Warrant Officer School to form up in 2004/05 to run 15 two-week courses a year with 60 Warrant Officers from all three Services on each one. There are implications for the accommodation, but this would only be for those people who would need such training for joint and NATO jobs. According to Jackling 'this would be an executive programme that would get the support of this important group for changes and give them opportunities to influence them'.

The RMCS is also facing significant change and downsizing. The RN has already outsourced its undergraduate training to Southampton University (aka HMS Thunderer). The Army and RAF are currently trialling 20 undergraduates at Newcastle and ten at Southampton Universities to validate the move of all engineering first degrees to external institutions - as is already the case with degrees in other disciplines. Four universities in all will probably provide this support eventually, with RMCS/Cranfield degrees finishing. However the second degree programmes and much of the technical training will continue.

The Defence Leadership Centre is about non-operational leadership, with roles as the MoD's internal and external focus for policy and best practice as well as addressing defence strategic leadership issues. Defence-wide doctrine and development policy is planned, using traditional training and e-learning delivery.

The Defence School of Finance and Management, currently at Worthy Down, and the Acquisition Training Cell at Bath will both move to the Defence Academy within a few years, grouped under the RMCS. This should exploit synergy and common ground between all three activities, and bring some more brainpower into this evolving academic, professional and military community.

According to Jackling: 'One area we want to do more and better is management. There's a big investment in educating the Services in operational art - we should do the same in management issues. The MoD has historically not trained enough people in management so we're increasing the provision and persuading organisations like the MoD, the DLO and the DPA to make the commitment to grow the next generation of staff to have MBAs and other management qualifications.

'Once we have an established management faculty of academics and directing staff, we can also run high-quality executive programmes for people at later career stages. So RMCS could keep its technical side but also become a defence management school of international repute. Although there may be sceptics at home, the British tri-Service system with its integrated staffs, the role of civilians in the military, and its use of management and financial tools is seen internationally as being very strong. There is a real market for this and it could become a major element of defence diplomacy, with students coming from overseas.'

Based in Camberley, the Conflict Studies Research Centre has developed from the Cold War days when it was an Iron Curtain and beyond watcher. It now researches central, southern and eastern Europe, the Caucasus and central Asia, and indeed the rest of the potentially hostile world. General roles include defence diplomacy, research papers, lectures and briefings, and scenario development.

While on the subject of research, Jackling appreciates that: 'It takes time to tease out connections and collaborations. You can't just slap a blueprint on the table - academics have too much intellectual integrity for that; my job is more to facilitate dialogue.' He explains that he would ideally like to see more interaction between military, academics and scientists by, for example, including the Joint Concept and Doctrine Centre that is on-site but not part of the Academy. He might also include the Research Acquisition Organisation - about 60 or so scientists who would be a huge additional resource to his private shopping list.

A 'passionate believer in MoD and Service commitment to external accreditation for Service training', he believes that 'If a few concessions to the accrediting body are needed it's worth it from the individual's point of view.' Nevertheless he does not agree that the Academy should become a university in its own right - 'it should continue and develop partnerships with universities'.

Neither are there any territorial ambitions to run tri-Service schools. 'DGT&E is responsible for defence schools. He must know the requirement for training and the providers. He will identify the routes and the various development paths. But I'm a proponent of education for the Service and Civil Service community. It adds to the value of the individual to the military profession and to the MoD. And this education should be in the management arts as well as in scientific disciplines and techniques. We need better interaction between the MoD and the Academy, and this is a problem we've not yet solved.'