From: DCDS Pers Secretariat 
Zone J, Seventh Floor, 
        
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE       
Main Building, London, SW1A 2HB. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our Reference:  
M Sykes 
24-08-2009-153546-002  
[[FOI #17274 email]] 
 
Date: 27 April 2010 
 
 
 
 
Dear M Sykes, 
 
Thank you for your correspondence, dated 23 August 2009, which has been 
considered to be a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of 
Information Act 2000. Your request has been passed to my department and I have 
been asked to respond. Please, first accept my apologies for the delay in replying. 
This was as a result of a structural reorganisation which led to the loss of some 
outstanding work. 
  
You asked the following question: 
 
The number of non-officer graduates in  
 
1. The Royal Navy  
2. The Army  
3. The Royal Air Force  
 
Further, if any have post graduate qualifications, details please. 
 
In order to pursue a career in the Armed Forces very few Branches will require a 
new entrant to hold an educational qualification that must be at degree level. 
These specialisations tend to be in one of the professions such as Medical Doctor, 
Dentist or Lawyer.  Therefore, there is no requirement to collect data for all of 
those service personnel who have gained a degree either through personal 
development or where the qualification gained was as a result of undertaking 
professional training that was able to be accredited against a National Standard.  
However, following the introduction of the Joint Personnel Administration system, 
there is now a facility for the recording of qualifications.  This, though, requires the 
individual to produce certificates to a Human Resource Administrator for 
verification and while we encourage all service personnel to do so this is not a 
mandatory requirement.  Therefore, the figures being disclosed here are not fully 
representative of the qualifications physically held which in reality are likely to be in 
much higher numbers.   
 
The following table provides the numbers of Service Personnel who are not 
Commissioned and have been verified as holding either a Bachelors Degree  
 
 
 

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and/or a Masters Degree that have been recorded on the Joint Personnel 
Administration system: 
 
Royal Navy 
Army 
Royal Air Force 
205 227  61 
 
 
Post Graduate qualifications can be obtained either through completion of in house 
professional training courses, attendance at external educational establishments or 
through the pursuit of personal development.  At this time data on post graduate 
qualifications is not held electronically.  Furthermore, we may hold some limited 
information in manual form.  However, it has been assessed that the costs for 
which we are permitted to charge in providing this information will exceed the 
appropriate limit.  This appropriate limit is specified in regulations and for central 
government is set at £600.  This represents the estimated costs of one person 
spending 3 and a half working days in determining whether the Department holds 
the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.  You may 
be aware that there are in excess of 145,000 service personnel that are currently 
serving as Other Ranks.  Educational records for these individuals are held in units 
both in the United Kingdom and overseas.  In order to determine how many 
graduates and post graduate qualifications held by those that are currently serving 
would require a manual search of each of these records.  Therefore, under the 
terms of Section 12 of the FOI Act, this means that we are not obliged to comply 
with your request. 
 
The MOD may be able to provide information requested if you reduce or refine 
your request to bring the cost of compliance under the limit.  However, I must 
advise that the recording of educational qualifications is not a mandatory 
requirement and any data obtained from a manual search may not be sufficient to 
meet your needs. 
 
If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to complain about any aspect 
of the handling of your request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If 
informal resolution is not possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply 
for an independent internal review by contacting the Head of Corporate 
Information, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail CIO-FOI-
[email address]). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made 
within 40 working days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal 
resolution has come to an end.  
 
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your complaint 
to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the 
Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will 
not investigate your case until the MOD internal review process has been 
completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner 
can be found on the Commissioner's website, http://www.ico.gov.uk.  
 
 
Yours sincerely 
  
Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel) - Secretariat 
 
 
 

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