REPORT ON AIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (AFIT):
STUDY FOR SENATE AND HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEES

CHAPTER NINE

The Policies and Practices Regarding the Admission to the Institute of Officers of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard; Employees of the Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, and Department of Transportation; Personnel of the Military Forces of Foreign Countries; Enlisted Members of the Armed Forces; and Other Persons Eligible for Admission

All United States Army, Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard officers are eligible to attend AFIT, as are all DoD and Department of Transportation civilian personnel and military officers from foreign countries. AFIT's mission is to educate students to develop skills needed for their future jobs.

AFIT follows largely the same admission policies and practices, including academic eligibility criteria, for applicants from sources other than the USAF. AFIT can enroll non-USAF students on a space-available basis only. Based on the AF's annual requirements for officers with advanced degrees, the AF funding for graduate education sets limits on the total number of man-years allocated for graduate degree programs. This limits the number of seats available for other students who wish to attend AFIT. AFIT leadership asserts they can efficiently produce 230 MS and 35 PhD students per year. Once the AFERB determines the number of student quotas for AFIT in each academic specialty, the Air Force Personnel Center, in conjunction with AFIT, attempts to fill quotas from the pool of applicants whom AFIT has identified as academically qualified and whose functional career fields will release them for the assignment.

The total number of these filled quotas determines the budget, personnel, and other resources the AF allocates to AFIT. As a result, the number of students AFIT can enroll each year from non-AF sources, including those from sister services, is limited by the number of vacant quota slots. Each year AFIT estimates, based on past experience, how many non-AF students it can admit the following academic year. This can lead to significant variations in the number of non-AF students AFIT can admit from year to year. In recent years, space has been available for almost all qualified applicants. This was not the case in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The AF funds AFIT based only on the number of AF quota students authorized. AFIT could accommodate additional non-USAF students if the institute received additional funding to offset the additional costs incurred.

Civilian personnel from any Federal government agency are eligible to attend AFIT either both part- or full-time--and a small number do so. AFIT is permitted to charge tuition to cover the expense of their education, but by law AFIT can retain these funds to defray its operating costs only under very specific circumstances described below. Otherwise, the AF normally transfers these funds to the general US Treasury and receives no direct benefit. There is no specific authority allowing personal checks to be deposited in an AF appropriation as payment for tuition. Without this authority, personal checks must be deposited in the Treasury (Miscellaneous Receipts Account).

AFIT may use a student's tuition to defray its operating expenses only if the student attends the institute under the provisions of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) between AFIT and the Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute (DAGSI). DAGSI is a consortium formed by Wright State University, the University of Dayton, and AFIT in 1995 to coordinate, integrate, and leverage the resources of the three schools to improve and expand graduate-level educational opportunities in engineering.¹ Through DAGSI, graduate engineering students can take scientific and technical courses at any of the member schools. The Ohio Board of Regents, the educational governing board for the State of Ohio, funds the consortium to provide scholarships for graduate engineering students at the DAGSI schools, and AFIT students are eligible for these scholarships. Under the provisions of the CRDA, non-quota AFIT students attending classes through DAGSI pay tuition to the consortium instead of directly to AFIT or to the other schools. DAGSI then reimburses the school for all courses provided. DAGSI deducts a minor administrative fee for this service. Last year DAGSI had 251 total students enrolled with 42 at AFIT and provided over $2.2M in scholarships and stipends worth over $335K.

Prior to the advent of the DAGSI, AF policy did not permit non-Federal government personnel to attend AFIT. The USAF Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel authorized AFIT to begin accepting these students through DAGSI in 1995. Although eligibility is limited to US citizens, this program allows AFIT to recruit outstanding students to help support AF research as part of their education program. AFIT can frequently provide these students part-time employment as research assistants using specific research-support funds provided by other AF and DoD agencies.

Finally, AFIT is allowing civilians and military located in the Wright-Patterson AFB area to attend part-time as stated in Chapter 3. Approximately 40 such students have taken advantage of this program over the past year. Many of these students have obtained tuition scholarships through funding provided by the State of Ohio.

Although no USAF policy explicitly prohibits enlisted personnel from enrolling in an AFIT program in the Graduate School of Engineering and Management, all references to eligibility for Air Force-sponsored quota slots in the graduate school refer to officers only. The AF sends students to AFIT for an AAD to obtain the education for a position the graduate would fill after graduation. Because the USAF does not have enlisted positions requiring an AAD, enlisted students could not be assigned against quota slots in the graduate school. However, there is no reason why academically qualified enlisted personnel could not attend AFIT as full-time students.

As mentioned in Chapter One, the Air Force envisions a joint effort with the Navy in identifying centers of excellence between AFIT and NPS. Through these collaborative efforts to identify and develop centers of excellence, AFIT and NPS may develop common application procedures and combined curricula and graduation opportunities that will eliminate unnecessary redundancy.

Recommendation: Work student fill rates commensurate with AFIT's funding.

1 The Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati have since joined the consortium as affiliate members.