2005:52 R
Officer training in Sweden. Evaluation of the educational programmes offered by the Swedish National Defence College and the Swedish Armed Forces training establishments and their quality assurance procedures. A task assigned by the government
The assignment
In December 2004 the National Agency for Higher Education was directed by the government to undertake a review of the training programmes offered by the National Defence College and within the Swedish Armed Forces on three points:
- The quality of officer training in the Swedish Armed Forces and at the National Defence College.
- The quality assurance procedures of the programme providers.
- Proposal of any measures arising from the two previous points.
In addition the review was to study the vocational relevance of officer training.
The standpoint of the National Agency for Higher Education
The conclusions of the panel of assessors The panel of assessors has discharged its task of appraising the standards and quality assurance procedures of the National Defence College and the Swedish Armed Forces training establishments in a committed and professional manner. The panel has also undertaken the task of assessing the vocational relevance of officer training excellently.
- With regard to the quality of officer training the panel of assessors considers in this report that the advanced officer training offered at the National Defence College is of academic standard and maintains a high quality. The courses in the Staff Officer Programme correspond, with the addition of a degree project, to Bachelor´s level and the courses in the Senior Officer Programme already meet the requirements for Master´s level. The panel of assessors was also further able to determine that the proposed new Regular Officer Programme represented a step in the opposite direction in being less academic than previously. If the proposed new Regular Officer Programme is nevertheless implemented, which the panel advises against with reference to its vocational relevance, it will create long-term problems with regard to the academic standards of the Staff Officer and Senior Officer Programmes, as they will then be deprived of their academic grounding.
- The assignment also involved appraisal of quality assurance procedures at the National Defence College and the Swedish Armed Forces training establishments. In its report the panel of assessors considers that on the whole the quality assurance procedures of the National Defence College are sound but expresses doubts about how the College will deal with its overall responsibility for all officer training programmes from January 1, 2006. The quality assurance procedures at the training establishments reviewed were also considered to be sound.
- When it comes to the task of proposing measures based on the above appraisals, there are grounds for dividing these on the basis of the areas of competence of the panel and of the National Agency for Higher Education. On the matter of concrete measures for the improvement of officer training, enhancement of its academic standards or its vocational relevance, the National Agency therefore refers readers to the report submitted by the panel of assessors and in particular to the concluding section headed “The reflections of the panel of assessors".
Assessing the qualifications offered by officer training in relation to civilian higher education programmes involves an evaluation of its academic standards with no formal appraisal of entitlement to award degrees. The Higher Education Act (1992:1434) lays down that all higher education must be based on a scientific (or artistic) foundation and tried and tested experience. This means that in any assessment of the academic standards of a programme the same quality aspects and criteria must be used as in the appraisal of entitlement to award degrees, or in other words financial status, infrastructure, the qualifications of the teachers and the scope provided for them to undertake research and enhance their expertise within the framework of their posts as well as the capacity to offer supervision. Moreover the structure of the programmes, their contents, disciplinary breadth and depth and their vocational relevance have to be taken into account. All of these aspects are assessed irrespective of whether the programme will conclude with the award of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree, even if demands vary depending on the level of the award.
The impression gained by the National Agency for Higher Education is that the Ministry of Defence, the National Defence College and the Swedish Armed Forces would also like some opinion that can provide a basis to enable the continued discussion of acquiring academic status for officer training. This is understandable, not least in view of the numerous enquiries that have been examining this issue since the beginning of the 1990s. In 1998 the National Agency for Higher Education already conducted an evaluation of the Staff Officer and Senior Officer Programmes at the National Defence College. The recommendations submitted by its panel of assessors have been adopted by the National Defence College. Thanks to the resources allocated to the College to enhance its academic standing, the deliberate recruitment of academically qualified civilian staff in a number of subjects has been possible. In this way a robust research environment has been created, which has also benefited training programmes for senior officers.
If the National Defence College is to be granted entitlement to award degrees and if officer training is to be granted the same status as civilian higher education, in addition to the attainment of academic standards, a number of legal and institutional barriers have to be removed. These formal obstacles have been recognised for a long time. Here the National Agency for Higher Education can merely indicate the most fundamental difficulties, which can only be resolved by political decisions.
Formal obstacles
Even though the Staff Officer and Senior Officer programmes are considered to attain academic standards, the National Defence College cannot be granted entitlement to award Bachelor´s and Master´s degrees as this is not compatible with the current regulations. The National Defence College is not a higher education institution as laid down in the Higher Education Act, nor is it an independent programme provider to which the Act on Permission to Award Certain Degrees (1993:7929) can apply.
In order to make more progress with the issue of acquiring academic status for the programmes, therefore, the Riksdag must decide that the National Defence College is to become a higher education institution as laid down in the Higher Education Act or that it should form part of such an institution. In its report A Reform of Training Establishments for the Defence Forces (SOU 2003:43), the Training Reform Enquiry discusses a number of different possible alternative organisational forms for the National Defence College (see appendix 4 of the report). The enquiry then concluded that two alternatives were preferable in terms of attainment of objectives, viability and development potential, which were as a sectoral institution of higher education funded by grants or as part of a civilian higher education institution funded through commissioned teaching.
The National Defence College is today more or less completely funded by commissioned teaching and the Swedish Defence Forces exert great influence on its programmes. Those studying at the National Defence College are employed by the Defence Forces and receive salaries during their training. Those about to undertake advanced officer training are also intended to return to paid employment with the Defence Forces.
The National Agency for Higher Education shares the opinion of the Training Reform Enquiry that this is a complicated state of affairs. The operations of higher education institutions are financed by the allocation of funding and the legislation allows them a great deal of freedom to plan their own activities, on the basis of the framework laid down by the statutes on higher education, by offering, in other words, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, organising research and cooperating with the surrounding community. On the other hand the higher education institution are only allowed to offer commissioned courses as a supplement to their main areas of activity.
The National Defence College as a separate establishment
In order to enable the inclusion of programmes offered at the National Defence College - which are today based on finance from various stakeholders who exert influence over their contents, the Defence Forces in particular - in the higher education system, one viable approach may be offered by the alternative proposed by the Training Reform Enquiry of incorporating the National Defence College as part of a civilian higher education institution accountable to the Ministry of Education, Research and Culture (see p. 102 in the report and the alternative headed FHSc in appendix 4). This proposal means either that programmes offered at the National College would be organised as ordinary commissioned courses in higher education (provided that the government grant exemption from the provisions of the Ordinance on Commissioned Courses at Higher Education Institutions (2002:760)) or that the National Defence College becomes what is referred to as a separate establishment in civilian higher education. An establishment of this kind forms part of a higher education institution but has its own directives in which the government determines the composition and powers of its board and lays down what it is required to do. This would then include, among other things, offering programmes commissioned by the Swedish Defence Forces. The civilian higher education institution would already be entitled to award bachelor´s and master´s degrees, but would have to inaugurate a new major subject - military science. One example of a separate establishment is the Institute for Translation and Interpreting (TOI) at Stockholm University. If the National Defence College intends to offer its own postgraduate programmes it would have to become part of a university.
The implementation of one of the above alternatives would not require the National Defence College to adapt its enrolment regulations to those that apply for the rest of the higher education system. Participants in its programme could be employed by the Swedish Defence Forces.
The National Defence College as a sectoral institution of higher education
If as the result of a political decision the National Defence College were to become a sectoral institution of higher education accountable to the Ministry of Defence, the College would become subject to the Higher Education Act. The National Agency for Higher Education concludes, as did the Training Reform Enquiry, that this status would exclude the possibility of the College being able to offer the bulk of its programmes as commissioned courses for one single target group. Instead the National Defence College would have to operate on the same terms as other higher education institutions (cf. the Training Reform Enquiry´s proposal concerning a sectoral institution of higher education financed by state grants, p. 101). This would require, for instance, compliance with the provisions of the Higher Education Act on the operations of higher education institutions, their organisation, teaching staff and students.
With regard to enrolment and selection for officer training the National Agency for Higher Education is also able to establish that the way in which students are admitted today is not compatible with the system of higher education and must be altered if the National Defence College is to be incorporated into this system. Section 12 of Chapter 7 of the Higher Education Act stipulates that the selection of beginner students in higher education must be based on school-leaving grades and the results of the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test in combination with labour market experience. According to Section 15 of the same chapter, waivers can be made for programmes that offer preparation for specific vocational areas that require certain personal qualities or special skills, in which case an aptitude test may be used. Officer training could be considered to be a programme of this kind. However, it is the National Agency for Higher Education that issues permits for higher education institutions to use tests and to lay down the conditions for their use. If tests of this kind are to be used, they must be comprehensive and the enrolment procedures transparent.
Officer training involves practical training in different units, where the cadets are involved in training exercises with conscripts. These operations require a high level of safety and a clear division of responsibilities. How these practical exercises could be incorporated into higher education is an issue that needs special consideration as at the moment there is no appropriate statute that can apply to them.
Conclusion
The National Agency for Higher Education therefore concludes that there are a number of formal obstacles to granting academic status to officer training and that political decisions are required to overcome them. What has been referred to as the academisation of officer training has made a great deal of progress since the Agency´s last evaluation in 1998, with the enhancement of quality at the National Defence College and its raised academic standards. At the same time it has taken two steps backwards with the proposed new Regular Officer Programme, which threatens to undermine the quality of more advanced officer training.
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