A
military academy or
service
academy (in
American
English) is an educational institution which prepares
candidates for service in the officer corps of the Army, the Navy,
Air Force or Coast Guard or provides education in a service
environment, the exact definition depending on the country
concerned.
Three types of academy exists:
High
school-level institutions awarding academic qualifications,
university-level institutions awarding
Bachelor's degree level
qualification, and those preparing
officer
cadets for
commissioning
into the
armed services of the
state.
Afghanistan
Argentina
Argentine Army
Argentine Navy
Argentine Air Force
Australia
Bangladesh
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
Has
several military academies, and the biggest is Academia Militar de Agulhas
Negras in the municipality of Resende
, in state of
Rio de
Janeiro
, in the southeast of that country.
Bulgaria
Canada
Canada
currently
has one military-theme private boarding school open for students at
the pre-university level, Robert Land Academy (RLA), which is
located in West Lincoln,
Ontario. Founded in 1977, it is an all-boys' institute
whose funding arises solely from tuition fees.
The Academy is an
institute fully accredited by the province of Ontario
, which accepts students from Grade 6 to Grade 12
(the Ontario Academic Credit level).
Canada formerly had three university level service academies, the
Canadian Military Colleges.
These included the Royal
Military College of Canada
(RMC) in Kingston, Ontario
, Royal Roads Military College
(RRMC) in Victoria, British Columbia
and the Collège militaire royal de
Saint-Jean
(CMR) in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec.
RMC was founded in 1876, RRMC in 1941 and CMR in 1954. By the 60s
all three institutions were providing *military education to
officer cadets of all three elements in the
Canadian Forces; the
navy,
army and
air force; and RMC received the authority to grant
academic degrees in
Arts,
Science and
Engineering.
Graduates of the Colleges are widely acknowledged to have had a
disproportionate impact in the Canadian services and society,
thanks to the solid foundations provided by their
military education. In the modern era,
emphasis was placed on a broad based,
liberal education including core courses
in the humanities, social, pure and
applied sciences. Military discipline and
training, as well as a focus on
physical fitness and fluency in both of
Canada's two official languages, English and French, provided
cadets with ample challenges and a very fulfilling experience.
In 1995
the Department of National Defence was forced to close Royal Roads
Military College
and Collège militaire royal de
Saint-Jean
due to budget considerations, but Royal
Military College of Canada
continues to carry the proud tradition educating
Canada's future leaders into the
twenty-first century.The Royal Roads University
reopened as a civilian university.
In 2007,
the Department of National Defence reopened Collège militaire royal de
Saint-Jean
as a preparatory and first year
college.
China, People's Republic of
China, Republic of
Czech Republic
Univerzita obrany (University of Defence)
http://www.unob.cz/en/
Denmark
Egypt
Finland
France
Undergraduate academies :
Postgraduate academies :
- Institut des hautes études de la défense nationale (Defense
Postgraduate Institute)
- École d'État-major (Staff School)
- Collège d'enseignement supérieur de l'armée de terre (Army
Higher Education College)
- Collège interarmées de défense (Defense Joint
College)
The
Ecole
Polytechnique
, though its students are enlisted in the military,
is no longer a military academy, as very few of its graduates
remain in the military after graduation.
Germany
In
Germany
there exists a system which clearly differs from
the common ones. The only true military academies are in fact
the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr where mainly future
staff officers and general staff officers are further trained and
the Naval
Academy Mürwik
.The standard education in military
leadership is the task of the
Offizierschulen (officer's
schools) run by the three branches. The contents differ from branch
to branch. In the army all officers are at least trained to lead a
platoon. There they also have to pass an officer exam to become
commissioned later on.Moreover there exist so called
Waffenschulen like infantry school or artillery school.
There the officer's learn to deal with the typical tasks of their
respective corps.A specialty of the German concept of officer
formation is the academic education. Germany runs two own
Universities of
the German Federal Armed Forces where almost every future
officer has to pass non-military studies and achieve a Bachelor's
or Master's degree. During their studies (after at least three
years of service) the candidates become commissioned
Leutnant (second-lieutenant).
Greece
The
Hellenic Armed Forces have
military academies supervised by each branch of the Armed Forces
individually:
India
Indonesia
Akademi Angkatan
Bersenjata Republic Indonesia (Indonesia Military
Academy)[3200] Founded in Yogyakarta
, October 13, 1945 in order of General Staff Chief
of Indonesia Army Leut. Gen Urip Sumoharjo with name Militaire
Academie (MA) Yogyakarta
.Now, Tentara Nasional Indonesia (National
Military of Indonesia), placed each academy into:
Indonesian Army
Indonesian Air Force
Indonesian Navy
Italy
University level institutions:
Japan
Korea, South
The three main military academies:
Other military academies:
Malaysia
Secondary level institutions:
University Level of
Education
Specialist Training &
Staff
institutions:
Reserve Officer Training Units ( or ) or ROTU exists only in public
universities in Malaysia. This is a tertiary institution based
officer commissioning program to equip students as officer cadets
with military knowledge and understanding for service as
Commissioned Officers in the reserve
components of the various branches of the
Malaysian Armed Forces.
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Tier One - Initial Officer Training
Tier Two - Junior Officer Education
Tier Three - Senior Officer Education
Norway
Undergraduate officer training
Postgraduate training
Pakistan
The
Pakistan Military
Academy is the sole supplier of officers to the
Pakistan Army while the
Pakistan Air Force Academy
supplies officers and fighter pilots to the
Pakistan Air Force. The officers for the
Pakistan Navy are supplied by the
Pakistan Naval Academy.
Panama
Centro de Enseñanza Superior Dr. Justo Arosemena
http://www.policia.gob.pa/direcciones/dnrrhh/ces.html
Peru
Undergraduate officer training
Philippines
The
Philippine
Military Academy
(PMA) is the training school for future officers of
the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It was established as
an Officer's School of the Philippine Constabulary on February 17,
1905 at Intramuros, Manila, but was relocated on September 1, 1908
in Baguio City.
Romania
In
Romania
there are military academies for every military
branch:
- Land Forces:
- Air Forces:
- Naval Forces:
There is also a technical military academy:
Serbia
Military Academy
Belgrade
Singapore
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has one defense university taking cadets from all three
armed services , 3 non-university level Military Academies, one for
each armed service providing basic training for officer and a
Command and Staff College for senior officers of the three armed
services.The General Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, was
established in 1980 and is named after Gen. Sri John Kotelawala the
2nd Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
- University
- Officer training
- Staff training
Soviet Union
Sweden
Military Academy
Karlberg
Turkey
United Kingdom

The 149th Sovereign's Parade in front
of Old College, RMA Sandhurst.
Pre-University level institutions:
- Welbeck College
- Sixth form college for 16 to 18 year olds
providing A-Level education in preparation for entry into the
British Armed Forces or Ministry of Defence Civil Service as
Technical Officers, following undergraduate education.
- Duke of
York's Royal Military School
- for the children of service men and
women.
Officer training
Postgraduate and staff training
- *Royal College of Defence
Studies
(mainly for officers of Colonel/Brigadier or
equivalent rank selected as future senior leaders; highly
selective)
- *Joint
Services Command and Staff College
(courses for officers from Major to Brigadier or
equivalent rank)
- *Defence College of Management and
Technology

- *Armed Forces
Chaplaincy Centre
- *Advance
Research and Assessment Group
- *Conflict Studies
Research Centre
No longer operational:
Paralleling the way the
School
Cadet forces work at a pre-university level, at the university
level there are the
University Royal Naval Units,
University Officer Training
Corps and
University Air
Squadrons. However the mission of the UOTC is not the training
of officers.
United States

US Air Force Academy cadets
The
United
States
is almost unique in that the term "military
academy" does not necessarily mean an institution run by the armed
forces to train its own military officers; it may also mean a
middle school, high school or tertiary-level college, whether public or private, which instructs
its students in military-style education, discipline and
tradition.
Many public
high schools offer
Junior Reserve Officers'
Training Corps programs sponsored by the
United States Armed Forces.
- The term military school primarily refers to
pre-collegiate (middle and high school) institutions. Military schools were
once far more common than they are today; see the extensive
list of
defunct military academies.
- The term military academy commonly refers to
all pre-collegiate, collegiate, and
post-collegiate institutions, yet graduate institutions, catering for officers
already in service, are often considered separately and termed
staff colleges and
Graduate Schools.
Military academies can be either private or have government
sponsorship from regional (
state) or
national government.
The colleges operated by the U.S. Federal Government are referred
to as the
Federal Service Academies and are:
- United States Military
Academy
, West Point, New York
- United States Naval Academy
, Annapolis, Maryland
- United States Air Force
Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado

- United States Coast Guard
Academy, New London, Connecticut

- United
States Merchant Marine Academy
, Kings Point, New York
- Uniformed Services University of the
Health Sciences
, Bethesda, Maryland
State-sponsored Military Academy:
In addition, several institutions which were at the time of their
founding military colleges, maintain both a corps of cadets and a
civilian student body. These include:
- Norwich University Corps of
Cadets. Norwich
University, Northfield, Vermont

- Texas A&M Corps of Cadets,
Texas
A&M University
, College Station, Texas
- The Citadel, The Military College of
South Carolina
, Charleston, South Carolina
- Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets,
Virginia
Tech
, Blacksburg, Virginia
- North Georgia College and State
University
, Dahlonega, Georgia
(chartered as a military college, but has had a
corps and a civilian student body from its inception)
Along
with Virginia
Military Institute
these institutions are known as the Senior Military
Colleges.
Five institutions are considered
Military Junior Colleges. These five
schools participate in the Army's two-year
Early Commissioning Program, an
Army
ROTC program where qualified students can
earn a commission as a
Second
Lieutenant after only two years of college. The five
Military Junior Colleges are:
- Wentworth Military Academy and
College
, Lexington, Missouri
- Valley
Forge Military Academy and College
, Wayne, Pennsylvania
- New Mexico Military
Institute
, Roswell, New Mexico
- Marion Military Institute
, Marion,
Alabama
- Georgia
Military College, Milledgeville, Georgia

Note: The terms
college and
university are interchangeable in the below
discussion. They are both used to denote an institution of higher
learning which a person might attend after attending high school,
typically at age 17, 18, or 19.
Pre-collegiate institutions
A military school teaches various ages (
middle school,
high
school, or both) in a manner that includes military traditions
and training in military subjects. The vast majority are in the
United States. Many military schools are also
boarding schools, and others are simply
magnet schools in a larger school
system. Many are privately run institutions, though some are public
and are run by either a public school system (such as the
Chicago Public Schools), or by a
state.
A common misperception results because some states have chosen to
house their child criminal populations in higher-security boarding
schools that are run in a manner similar to military boarding
schools. These are also called
reform
schools, and are functionally a combination of
school and
prison. They attempt
to emulate the high standards of established military boarding
schools in the hope that a strict structured environment can reform
these children. This may or may not be true. However, this should
not reflect on the long and distinguished history of military
schools; their associations are traditionally those of high
academic achievement, with solid college preparatory curricula,
schooling in the military arts, and considerably esteemed
graduates.
Popular culture sometimes shows
parents sending or threatening to send unruly children off to
military school (or
boarding school)
to teach them good behavior.
Adult institutions
A college level
military academy is an institute
of higher learning of things
military. It
is part of a larger system of
military education and
training institutions. The primary educational goal at military
academies is to provide a high quality education that includes
significant coursework and training in the fields of
military tactics and
military strategy. The amount of
non-military coursework varies by both the institution and the
country, and the amount of practical military experience gained
varies as well.
Military academies may or may not grant university degrees. In the
U.S., graduates have a major field of study, earning a
Bachelor's degree in that subject just as
at other universities. However, in British academies, the graduate
does not achieve a university degree, since the whole of the
one-year course (nowadays undertaken mainly but not exclusively by
university graduates) is dedicated to military training.
There are two types of military academies: national
(government-run) and state/private-run.
- Graduates from national academies are typically commissioned as
officers in the country's military. The new officers usually have
an obligation to serve for a certain number of years. In some
countries (e.g. Britain) all military officers train at the
appropriate academy, whereas in others (e.g. the United States)
only a percentage do and the service academies are seen as
institutions which supply service-specific officers within the
forces (about 15 percent of US military officers).
- State or private-run academy graduates have no requirement to
join the military after graduation, although some schools have a
high rate of graduate military service. Today, most of these
schools have ventured away from their military roots and now enroll
both military and civilian students. The only exception in
the United States is the Virginia Military Institute
which remains all-military.
See also
References