The principal academic issue for veterans and active duty military personnel alike is the transfer of military training experience to college credits.  For graduate programs, all students are going to need a bachelor’s degree of some sort but in some cases that undergraduate requirement or much of it can be met with training.  Each university is going to have their own criteria for credit transfer, but the American Council on Education (ACE) has developed several manuals with guidelines specific to each branch of the service with regard to credit transfer.  We have listed accredited degree programs that should be relevant to some of the most common forms of military training and education, and have had widespread appeal among veterans returning to school,

1.    Business Communications is the area of focus for an entire set of degrees offered at Jones International University.  This school has chosen to create an academic specialization separate from business administration that is integral to any successful business operation and an excellent fit for several types of military training.  Degree specializations include the Master of Business Communications in Project Management, in Entrepreneurship, in Leadership, and in Leading a Customer Driven Organization.

2.    Transportation and Logistics Management takes several forms in the academic world, but the best option available as a graduate program may be the online Master of Science in Operations & Supply Chain Management available through the University of Liverpool.  This degree is also available with a concentration in Procurement & Sourcing; in either configuration there are several areas of military training that veterans can fall back on for transfer of credits.

3.    Military History for veterans or active duty officers interested in teaching is available as an online Master of Military History from one of the nation’s oldest military academies, Norwich University.  There is an interesting format for this degree: six, six credit, eleven week long seminars that are completed in sequential order.  The degree requires eighteen months to complete, and there is a capstone project that requires some time in residency on campus in Vermont.

4.    Business Intelligence is offered as a master’s program at Grantham University.  This unusual degree title and curriculum focuses on a primary concern in business that is usually part of a MBA program but here is offered as a primary professional concentration.  The Master of Business Intelligence degree teaches the student to harness information technology and utilize decision making tools for management decisions within a business, rather than a military framework.

5.   Emergency and Disaster Management is one of the concentrations available in the graduate program for domestic security at Eastern Kentucky University.  The online Masters in Emergency Management program has six core courses and three mandatory courses for the specialization, along with five electives that include Issues in Security Management, Applied Emergency & Safety Management, and a thesis.

6.   International Relations is the focus of the Master of International Negotiation & Conflict Resolution offered online by Creighton University.  This is a thirty two credit hour degree that is designed to be spread over three years in online format.  Classes are taken one at a time in sequential order, with one or two classes allotted to each semester.  It’s a good format for working students who can maintain full time employment while studying online.

7.   Criminal Justice professions have become an integral part of the role the U.S. military has played in the last three wars this country has engaged in.  A veteran or an active duty member can obtain a Masters in Criminal Justice online from the University of Cincinnati, one of the top five rated criminal justice schools in the nation.   This particular program is designed for working professionals, who can complete the course of study in one year of full time work or two years of part time study.

8.   Homeland Security is available as an option for criminal justice and IT degrees at several schools.  As a pure academic focus however the Masters in Homeland Security from Kaplan University is one of the best choices for a career focused on the core Homeland Security issues on which so many military veterans have received training.  Organizational behavior, global challenges, and security technology are all part of the curriculum.  Kaplan also offers a Certificate in Terrorism and National Security that can be applied to this degree.

9.    National Securities Studies degrees in several concentrations are available online from American Military University.  This school was established with the goal of providing relevant undergraduate and graduate programs for military veterans and active duty members.  The Master of National Security Studies is offered with areas of concentration in Homeland Security, Regional Security Studies, Terrorism Studies, and Security & Intelligence Analysis.

10.    Information Technology graduate degree programs suited to military training can be found at the University of Maryland University College.  UMUC has several online programs for which military education can be turned into credits including the Master of Information Technology in Homeland Security Management, Master of IT in Information Assurance, Master of IT in Database Technology, and Master of IT in Telecommunications Management.