Defence Studies contract renewal

Defence Studies Department at King’s receives 10-year contract extension from Ministry of Defence.

As part of the Defence Academy’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract with Defence Management (Watchfield) Ltd, the Defence Studies Department (DSD) at King’s was awarded the contract to educate Armed Forces personnel at the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC) in Shrivenham in 2000. Following a rigorous value-testing process required by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in which the provision of academic support services has been market tested, King’s has successfully secured a 10-year contract extension worth more than £50 million.

The announcement comes as Peter Watkins, Director General of the Defence Academy visits King’s today. He commented: ’The academic provision at the Joint Services Command and Staff College goes to the very heart of what makes this a world-leading military establishment. King’s College London’s outstanding track record and their strong ethos of innovation and research made them an exceptional choice. As the Ministry of Defence faces up to education in an age of austerity, I am certain that the Staff College’s partnership with King’s can continue to play a key and influential role across the whole Defence Academy, and more widely within the Joint Forces Command of which we will soon be a part. We enjoy extremely close links with King’s, and I am delighted to continue to invest in that relationship through my first visit to the Strand today.’

Professor Matt Uttley, Head of the Department said: ’This is excellent news and a testament to the close academic-military partnership forged over the last eleven years with the MoD and Serco at the JSCSC ’.

King’s transitioned from an interim contract to provide academic support at Bracknell and Henlow, to full academic support when the JSCSC moved to its present site in 2000. DSD then became a full academic department at King’s and delivery of command and staff education for the Armed Forces became its core business.

Since the Department first started providing command and staff education for the Armed Services, more than 20,000 students have passed through the purpose built staff college, of which more than 2,500 have graduated with a King’s MA in Defence Studies.