Utilization of graduate education in the United States Marine Corps

Abstract

This research was conducted at the request of Marine CorpsUniversity and examined the utilization of 344 graduate education billets within the Marine Corps. The research findings make two recommendations: 1) DC CD&I should charter a working group and use this research as a basis to review the reallocation of under-utilized BEEC BMOSs. 2) DC CD&I should also review BEEC BMOS structure and consider a new distribution plan that includes a new graduate education requirements assessment. These billets are highly desired by units due to their excepted manning precedence level. This thesis used survey methods to collect utilization data on Marine CorpsOfficers that graduated from the Special Education Program and the Advanced Degree Program between the years of 2009 and 2013. The survey is approved through the Naval Postgraduate School Institutional Review Board (NPS IRB), sponsored through Training and Education Command (TECOM) and supported by Headquarters Marine Corps(HQMC). The data collected from the survey was analyzed to identify significant factors that are highly correlated with low and high utilization in order to improve efficiencies. Findings include initial placement rate from school to billet of 93 percent and the utilization rate reflecting self-reported usage while in billet of 75 percent, identified throughout individual tours. This difference between placement utilization reflects the disparity between top-down and bottom-up planning. Collective review and reorganization of these billets is recommended to reduce further disparity between placement and utilization rates. Objective evaluation and fair reorganization based upon high utilization will ensure Marine Corpshuman resource assets remain a constant force multiplier and act as a model for high retention strategy.