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University students flock to sign-up for the military
June 20, 2007 10:27 AM
Although recruitment to the Armed Forces continues to be a challenge with the Army remaining under-strength, increasing numbers of university students are signing on to wear military uniform as members of the University Officers Training Corps.
In Answer to a Parliamentary Question tabled by the Liberal Democrats, Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram revealed that every one of the 19 UK universities which have Officers Training Corps are heavily over-subscribed. For example, Dundee and Edinburgh have twice as many students recruited into the Corps than the official established strength.
Mr Ingram said that, historically, many of the University Officers Training Corps (UOTC) were affiliated to single universities but with the rise in the number of tertiary education establishments this had changed. Although many of the Corps are situated in, and take their title from a particular city, they have a substantial footprint covering more than 130 universities and colleges.
The Lib Dems in parliament asked Mr Ingram if the Government had any plans to increase the number of universities which had Officers Training Corps but was told that there were none.
According to previous Parliamentary Questions answered, around ten per cent of the British Army is not British with young men and women being recruited from 57 different countries around the world, mainly from the Commonwealth with Fiji, with almost 2,000, contributing the most.
Responding to the news, Willie Rennie, MP for Dunfermline and West Fife and member of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee said:
"Clearly many university students feel that membership of the Officers Training Corps is worthwhile. What is not happening, however, is that when it comes to joining HM Armed Forces as a career insufficient numbers of Britain's young people are prepared to do so. This is something which we need to address, along with the importance of improving retention levels."
For most of the University Officers Training Corps the approved established strength is 138 (for the four where the strength is higher this is given in parenthesis). The number enrolled at each of the 19 UOTC is as follows:
Aberdeen 242, Belfast 191, Birmingham 219, Bristol 240, Cambridge (190) 275, Cardiff (176) 292, Dundee 300, Edinburgh 283, Exeter 250, Glasgow 197, Leeds 280, Liverpool 229, London (320) 417, Manchester 235, Oxford (190) 306, Newcastle 309, Nottingham 240, Sheffield 280 and Southampton 246.
The figures are as at 31st March 2007. Mr Ingram ended his Parliamentary Answer with the comment: "The numbers of active members under training is smaller than the enrolled numbers."
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