The Marine Corps is scrapping minimum in-service time requirements for using tuition assistance

Now is the time to start applying for those college classes.

The Corps just announced that it is scrapping minimum time service requirements to use tuition assistance, or TA.

Not only have the time constraints been removed, but Marines who are in the status of “awaiting training” can also start to use TA, according to a recent Marine administrative message posted Monday.

Prior to Monday’s announcement, first-time TA users in the Corps had to wait 18 months, a policy change that just had been implemented in May 2018. The Corps chopped the minimum in service requirement for TA down six months from the previous wait of two years.

“Command approval of TA is contingent upon the command’s anticipated mission requirements and individual Marines’ eligibility to participate in the program,” the new MARADMIN reads.

Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald L. Green hinted changes to the Corps’ professional and military education system were coming at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space exposition in early April 2018.

Green had recently made a trip to Air Force’s Air University located aboard Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama to gauge how the Air Force credentials and educates its airmen.

RELATED

This is how the Corps is overhauling its enlisted military education to boost lethality and college accreditation

The Sergeants School is being lengthened to five weeks, and the curriculum will better align with civilian colleges and universities.

By Shawn Snow

Various education incentives and changes to military education have already started to roll out over the past year.

Some of these changes are part of modernization and professionalization of the Corps as the force overhauls its Marines for a fight with near-peer rivals.

The Corps is seeking thinkers on the battlefield, and in the future fight the Marines may need to rely on noncommissioned officers to fill the roles of military officers and commanders.

Some changes have included renaming the Enlisted Professional Military Education Directorate to the College of Enlisted Military Education and adding a week to the resident Sergeants School.

The Corps is also streamlining its curriculum to make translating college credit to civilian universities more palpable.

In Other News

Major leadership shakeup, new budget battles coming to VA in 2025

The major Veterans Affairs stories we're keeping an eye on in 2025.

Rollback of DOD anti-extremism efforts coming in 2025, experts predict

The piecemeal progress of extremism-prevention efforts during the past four years is more than can be expected out of the Pentagon in 2025, experts said.

From Grinch greetings to Santa sightings, the holidays come to troops

Holiday helpers have been busy, as plenty of organizations and individuals have been working to make the days a bit brighter for troops and their families.

Will most troops move under new household goods program in 2025?

More than half of installations in the continental United States are moving troops' shipments under the new system.

VA to resume new electronic health record rollout in mid-2026

The project was scheduled to take 10 years and cost $16 billion. Nearly eight years later, only six of VA’s 170-plus medical sites are using the software.

Load More