The value of university armed service units

This research will investigate the value of the university armed service units (USUs), focusing on their value to USU graduates who do NOT go on to serve in the Armed Forces, and to the UK military establishment. The USUs comprise the University Royal Naval Units (URNUs), the University Officer Training Corps (UOTC) and the University Air Squadrons (UAS), which have, respectively, the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force as their parent services. The USUs are open to British and Commonwealth students at UK universities. USUs provide students with a taste of military life and training over their three years of participation. Students are not obliged to proceed to military careers following graduation. USUs are funded through the defence budget, and affiliated to either a single university or a regional consortium.

Anecdotal evidence and our pilot research suggests that the USUs have value to a number of different constituencies. However, there is little consensus as to what, exactly, this value means and how it is manifest. That is the point of this research. The research will address the question of USU value for:

* Graduates of USUs who may (or may not) see value in their past USU experience, in terms of the personal attributes and transferable graduate-level skills which their USU participation may have inculcated.
* Employers of USU graduates who may (or may not) see value in the USU experience, in terms of the skills and attributes developed in employees and brought to the labour market by job applicants.
* Universities which may (or may not) see value in hosting USUs, both for the opportunities units provide to students in developing graduate employability, and for the profile and marketing benefit which hosting a USU might bring.
*Student participants in USUs who may (or may not) see value in their USU experience, through development of their transferable skills and the enhancement of their CV and their employment prospects that participation might bring.
* The three Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence which may (or may not) see value in funding the USUs, for recruitment purposes and for the opportunities the USUs present for informing a wider public of the roles and ethos of the British Armed Forces.

The research will achieve two core objectives. The first of these is, quite simply, to establish the value of the USUs to the five constituencies identified above. The research therefore has an applied element. Working with key research users from the defence and higher education sectors, we are looking to provide an independent and rigorous evaluation of this question of value. Significantly, we are looking at 'value' in non-monetary terms. Instead of a cost-benefit analysis, we are focusing quite explicitly on value as something that need not necessarily be quantified, but instead can be judged in qualitative terms as benefit drawn to individuals and social organisations. In turn, and in conjunction with our research users (with whom we have worked in developing this application), we will be feeding our conclusions into future policy and decision-making levels in higher education and defence. The second objective is an academic one. The research team have an established academic reputation for their conceptual work on civil-military relations and on militarism and militarisation, which has shaped research agendas in sociology, human geography and political science. The research will continue this work by exploring and conceptualising this less-visible manifestation of military presence and influence.

By providing an independent, critical evaluation of the USUs, to the highest academic standards, the research promises to make a distinct and valuable contribution both to future higher education and defence policy debates on the future of USUs, and also to academic debates on the nature of relations between military organisations and wider civil society.

The research will have impacts on two discrete groups of research users (see also Pathways to Impact).

1. The defence sector, via Ministry of Defence and the three Armed Forces. Although to outside observers the military establishment may appear as a monolithic entity, in fact it comprises distinct units with separate roles and functions. Within the Ministry of Defence, responsibility for funding and oversight of USUs lies within the office of the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff Personnel and Training, and the research team have established links with the individual responsible for USUs within that directorate. Within the three armed forces, named senior staff officers with whom the research team have established contact have responsibility for, respectively, the URNUs, OTCs and UASs. We also include here the Defence Academy UK via the Defence Technical Officer and Engineer Entry Scheme (DTOEES) which although not a USU (its graduates all proceed to military careers), constitutes an interested party with regard to research findings.

Impact for this group will be facilitated by: participation in the project steering group (to which all the above have agreed), including opportunities for advising on the design and execution of data collection; on-going communication of research findings via the password protected section of the project website (which will provide project updates and steering group-related documents); provision of sector-specific and force-specific research briefings (written and oral) on project findings, as requested; and provision of independent research-based recommendations as requested on proposed policy and publicity initiatives as they relate to the public / civilian interface.

2. The higher education sector, via sector-specific organisations and via the graduate careers advisory and recruitment community constitute the second group of users. Direct sector involvement will include the participation on the project steering group of the Deputy VC for Durham University (Prof Anthony Forster), the Chair of the Council of Military Education Committees (COMEC: Prof. Donald Ritchie) and Newcastle University Careers Service Director (Nick Keeley, a member of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services). Wider engagement and impact will be achieved through communication of research findings (in print and web formats) directly to universities hosting USUs (via Vice-Chancellors offices in the first instance), and via key representative organisations within the sector (Universities UK, Guild HE, the Russell Group, the 1994 Group, and the Million+ group). We will also communicate research findings to the higher education funding councils for England, Scotland and Wales, the National Union of Students, and any other organisations as advised by our steering groups and sector contacts.

Impact for this group will be facilitated by: participation in the project steering group of select users and on-going communication to them of research findings; the provision of research result briefings focusing on sector concerns such as employability and graduate skills, circulated to the above users; provision of in-person briefings as required; and the provision of research-based recommendations on the management of USU-university relations as part of the reporting of project findings.

Impact for both of the identified groups will be facilitated through an end of project event to be held in Newcastle in 2014. Steering group members, key employers and military personnel, as well as project participants will be invited to attend. It is planned that this event will be held at St Cuthbert's Keep, the UOTC centre in Newcastle, and will include the official launch of the project report as well as the opportunity for guests to meet with student officer cadets from the three USUs linked to Newcastle University.