PUTTEN, THE NETHERLANDS – Six years before the First World War, British military planners launched a scheme to train university students as army officers. This was intended to create a pipeline of new officers in case of war, and forge connections between the next generation of elites and the army.
The new University Officer Training Corps (UOTC) swiftly proved its worth, training 20,000 officers to lead soldiers on the front lines of the First World War. The Corps trained a further 30,000-50,000 more during the Second World War.
More than a century on, around 1,400 students join the scheme each year. But a multimillion-pound price tag and a long-standing agreement that graduates can’t be called up has raised questions over its future.
Shorts
Dozens of universities are involved with the UOTC, which has 15 units across 27 training locations. The i Paper joined one cohort for a recent training exercise in The Netherlands.
