Bursaries And Scholarships From The Armed Forces
The army is keen – very keen – on maintaining an intelligent and well-structured organisation and keeping the armed forces a maintained and powerful force for the country. And to do this, they need intelligent graduates who have gained valuable knowledge and skills.
So, the armed forces are offering something quite special indeed – full bursaries and scholarships to anyone who will take them and, hopefully, join their ranks when they graduate. It’s a good deal, and shouldn’t be dismissed as another recruiting drive. This is much more than that; it’s a full and complete opportunity to both pay your way through university and get a job at the end of it.
The Advantages
The advantages to joining this scheme are, frankly, obvious. But that doesn’t make them any less good for any student thinking about finishing a degree. In fact, it makes the entire idea of a degree a much more attractive prospect. This way, the armed forces will pay for you to finish your degree – in part or in full – and will offer you a job at the end of it all, if you’re any good.
This is like any other scholarship except this time it’s with the armed forces. Whatever preconceptions someone considering the offer might have about the armed forces should, probably, be held aside – this is a really, really good deal; just because it’s with the army doesn’t mean it won’t work out more or less the same as any other scholarship or bursary.
There’s another huge advantage to this scheme too – generally when companies and organisations start paying for a student to go through university, they understandably take a vested interest in the student, supporting them in any way possible. With the armed forces, this is no different. It’s difficult to tell how exactly this will manifest itself but occasionally this interest could take the form of a brand new laptop, a stack of textbooks, or even paid extra tuition. But on the downside, it could just be a printed coffee mug and an ARMY pencil. It all depends on what you can milk when you’re trying for the position – and make sure to milk it as much as you possibly can. These kind of opportunities don’t come around often.
Why Would They?
Fair enough; good question. Why would the armed forces spend so much money on little old you to finish your degree, and why would they throw in extras in the process? Well, basically, they need to – the armed forces are going to have an enormous skills gap in a few years and are in desperate need of graduates to fill positions that will become available as staff retire from areas like communications, engineering, and technology. These aren’t always the kind of areas that a soldier that’s done a few tours can just walk into. People need to be well educated and trained for this kind of thing. That’s why they’re paying for people to graduate – they need graduates!
The armed forces don’t just need to fill the boots of various people who have or are about to retire, either – the forces themselves are changing, and the army isn’t the entity it used to be. Now there’s more mathematicians needed to break codes, more engineers needed to make machines, and more scientists and statisticians to analyse a situation. That’s what the army needs – intelligent people. Like you.
There’s a lot more to the armed forces then people realise – the army employs around 600,000 people from all over the country. There is a desperate, pressing need for scientists, engineers, accountants, mathematicians, doctors, nurses, legal experts, and much else besides. Every technical degree you can think of will have an equivalent position within the armed forces. The real shame is that this is not widely known.
What They Expect
Now, in return for your free or reduced-cost higher education and a new laptop, what do the armed forces expect from you in return? Well, put simply – and it is our pleasure to write this entirely without irony – they want YOU! Yep. It’s that simple. A student hoping to qualify for the army bursary would have to pass their selection programme, and would then go on to study their degree programme. When they graduate, qualifiers from the most common of the scholarship schemes would be expected to serve a minimum of three years in the army as a regular officer.
So, yes, there is a catch. But in fairness, it’s not a huge one – working for the company or organisation that paid you through university is not exactly unheard of, and the contract is fair and democratic. Besides, getting a paid job directly after you graduate isn’t exactly something to be upset about. This is a truly great opportunity, and should be treated as one.
There are a variety of scholarships and bursaries available to anyone hoping to study as an undergraduate, and these are awarded only to the people studying a degree programme that the army will consider relevant to the roles they wish to fill. This does allow a varied list – the armed forces as a whole offer an enormous variety of different scholarships in a wide range of disciplines, and there’s an awful lot available to prospective students.
Directly Related Courses
The most common of the courses that the army offers scholarships and bursaries for are, unsurprisingly, directly related to work within the army proper as a soldier. These generally are fast-track courses in order to become a young serving officer after graduation and service as a soldier.
The army also offers a rather intriguing scholarship to prospective music students who they hope to recruit after graduation. This is designed to bring musicians into the army as part of a long tradition of marching to music within the British army. We’ve all seen them – the guys in red coats and bearskins with trumpets and drums; that could be you! It’s well worth considering when studying for a music course and would look great on your CV, even if you decide not to take the position as an army musician.
The army offers more scholarships in the courses directly involved within army positions than anywhere else, and these are the ones that most people will qualify for. If you’re not looking for a job in the military directly, these are still worth considering – an extra three years of service to your country isn’t a bad thing, by any standard, and after this you can decide what you want to do with a degree in your pocket. Remember any degree is a very good thing, and often job opportunities will crop up in areas that have nothing to do with your degree but you will still be able to qualify for. We know we keep saying it, but this really is a good deal.
Two Very Common Questions
How much money could I expect to receive?
Good question. This depends entirely on your course and degree programme and how interested the army is in you. Students studying as part of the army directly could be expected to receive between £6000 and £8000, depending on the length of the course. Students studying courses that aren’t directly related to the military can still expect a bursary, but generally the amount of money they’d receive would be considerably less. It all depends on the course and the contract.
Finally, students in the army’s music scheme can expect to receive £1500 for a three year course.
Do I have to join the army afterwards?
Short answer: no. Nobody will make you join the army, but generally it would be expected of you, particularly if you’ve studied a directly related course. After graduation if you decide this isn’t what you want to do, you don’t have to, but you may be expected to give them their money back.
Undergraduates studying courses with a bursary from the armed forces that aren’t directly related to the military may have to do the same thing – it all depends on what agreement you come to with the army when receiving your bursary. Generally though you would be expected to work in a position on the civilian side of the military for at least three years. Though, again, this depends on the exact terms that come with the bursary.