THE RETENTION AND PERFORMANCE OF U.S. NAVAL OFFICERS WITH FUNDED AND SELF-FUNDED GRADUATE DEGREES

Abstract

The U.S. Navy offers funded graduate education to its officers in order to compete for talent and meet its current and future manpower needs. Opportunities exist both in military and civilian educational institutions to produce a well-educated and balanced group of men and women equipped to make sound decisions when facing unprecedented threats that affect the Navy’s mission. This thesis uses a multivariate analysis approach to examine retention and promotion rate differences for officers with graduate degrees, considering the educational institution and whether it is civilian or military, the officer designator, and the timing of the graduate education. The analysis focuses on naval officers with degrees from Navy commissioned cohorts 1997 to 2002, followed annually until separation, or until 2017. The findings show that in the Unrestricted Line community, officers with funded graduate degrees have higher twelve- and fifteen-year retention and higher O4 and O5 promotion rates than officers with self-funded graduate degrees. In the Restricted Line and Staff community, officers with funded graduate degrees have only slightly better rates of fifteen-year retention and O4 promotion outcomes when compared with officers with self-funded graduate degrees.