CTC ranked number one among service member

tuition assistance enrollments

CTC was ranked the number one undergraduate school for the number of students attending and number of enrollments/course among service members using the Department of Defense (DoD) Voluntary Education Tuition Assistance program. The rankings were recently released by the DoD Continuing Education Programs.

CTC was first with 31,733 students and 69,701 enrollments. The University of Maryland University College was second in the number of students with 26,764 and third in enrollments with 59,722. American Military University was second in enrollments with 65,866 and third in number of students with 23,408.

The DoD's off-duty, voluntary education programs constitute one of the largest continuing education programs in the world. Each year about 300,000 service members enroll in postsecondary courses leading to associate, bachelor, master and doctorate degrees. Colleges and universities, through an extensive network, deliver classroom instruction to hundreds of military installations around the world.

Service members are also afforded opportunities to earn college credits for learning that has taken place outside the traditional classroom. This is accomplished through programs such as college-level equivalency testing, assessment of prior learning, assessment of military training, independent study and distance learning. Many of these educational opportunities are provided to service members free of charge or, as in the case of college courses, at costs significantly reduced by tuition assistance.

In 1996, the military agreed tuition assistance should be uniform across the each branch of service. Tuition assistance thus became uniform the following year. The National Defense Authorization Act for 2000 removed the long-standing restriction on the percentage of tuition assistance the military could pay and, for the first time, authorized 100 percent.

CTC has served active and retired military and family members for more than 40 years and has campuses across the continental United States, the Pacific Far East to include mainland Japan, Okinawa and Korea and locations across Europe as well as deployed locations in Southwest Asia. Classes are also offered on ships at sea and online to civilians and the military through the Army´s eArmyU program, MarineNet and the Navy´s PACE program.

In addition to on-site operations in deployed locations, CTC has developed various other educational delivery methods such as classes on CD-ROM, personal digital assistants or PDAs and ipods for military personnel who are unable to attend classes and do not have regular Internet access. CTC currently offers military personnel more than 200 online courses and 20 online degree programs.