Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of Sandhurst, Berkshire, though its ceremonial entrance is in Camberley, Surrey, southwest of London. All British Army officers are trained at the academy, alongside other men and women from overseas. The academy also commands the University Officers' Training Corps, which along with the General Staff Centre and the Centre for Army Leadership are collectively part of the formation known as Sandhurst Group part of Home Command.
Sandhurst is the British Army equivalent of the Britannia Royal Naval College and of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell.
Location
Despite its name, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst's address is located in Camberley; the boundaries of the academy straddle the counties of Berkshire and Surrey. The county border is marked by a small stream known as the Wish Stream, after which the academy journal is named.The "Main Gate" is located on the east of the Academy on the London Road in Camberley. The "College Town Gate", which is used for regular access, is located on the west of the Academy on Yorktown Road in Sandhurst.
History
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst was formed on the site of the former Royal Military College in 1947 when it amalgamated with the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich.Following the ending of National Service in the UK and the closing of the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot in 1972, the RMAS became the sole establishment for male initial officer training in the British Army, taking over the responsibilities of Mons for training Short Service Officer Cadets, Territorial Army officers, and those joining the Regular Army as graduates. For nearly half-a-century the welfare of overseas cadets was handled by Sandhurst volunteer Margaret Jones.
In 1984, the Women's Officer Training College Bagshot was also merged into Sandhurst. In 1992, a new Commissioning Course finally unified the training of male, female, and overseas cadets.
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Collection illustrates the history of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. The collection includes the Gentlemen Cadet registers, historic archives, uniforms, paintings, photographs, and other artefacts.
For the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, the newly created Academy hosted the running leg of the modern pentathlon competition.
In 2012, Sandhurst accepted a £15 million donation from the government of United Arab Emirates for the Zayed Building, an accommodation block, named after the UAE's founding ruler. In 2013, Sandhurst accepted a donation of £3 million from the Government of Bahrain for the refurbishment of Mons Hall, named in honour of the men who fell in the Battle of Mons. It was renamed as King Hamad Hall in honour of the King of Bahrain, which generated some controversy in the United Kingdom.
In 2015, Sandhurst appointed Colonel Lucy Giles as the first female college commander in its history.
In 2019, Sandhurst gained widespread media attention in Britain after cadet Olivia Perks took her own life after an alleged affair with a superior at Sandhurst and amid fears she was going to be dismissed. In May 2023, an inquest into her death found that the army missed chances to prevent Perks's suicide in failing to recognise signs of stress.
Selection
Potential officers, for regular, reserve, or professional qualified service, are identified by the Army Officer Selection Board situated in Westbury in Wiltshire. Assessment for regular or reserve direct entry service is undertaken at the same time, in the same groups, to the same standard. Nearly 10 per cent of British cadets are female and nearly 10 per cent of all cadets come from overseas. More than eighty percent of entrants are university graduates, although a degree is not required for admission.Instructors
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst instructors' cadre is run once every year. The aim is to select 30 senior non-commissioned officers from 60 over the course of 3–4 weeks. Instructors can come from any part of the British Army although most are historically from the Infantry. Typically before the 60 candidates arrive on the cadre, they would have had to have passed a 'Divisional pre-selection' course, meaning it would not be unusual for over double the 60 places to be contested. Sergeants, Staff/Colour Sergeants attend the Instructors Cadre. The Instructors Cadre is known to be demanding, both physically and mentally, compressing all the prominent physical tests and mental assessments that each Officer Cadet undertakes over the year course, into 3/4 weeks. No other instructor posting has a selection to pass in order to be a part of a training team.Courses
There are three commissioning courses run at the academy. All are accredited by various academic and professional institutions, in particular the Chartered Management Institute. The Regular Commissioning Course, and increasingly the Short Course, are attended by international officer cadets from other nations' land forces. The three courses are:1. The Regular Commissioning Course, which lasts 44 weeks, for Direct Entry officers into the Regular service.
2. The Short Commissioning Course, which is for Army Reserve officers and both regular and reserve service professionally qualified officers, which lasts eight weeks. The short course consists of four training modules; the first two, Modules A and B, can be completed under the supervision of RMAS with University Officers' Training Corps over a number of weekends, or at RMAS where each module lasts two weeks. The final two modules, modules C and D, of the Officers' training and assessment must be conducted at Sandhurst. This training can all be completed in an eight-week period at RMAS, or over a number of years. Upon completion, Officer Cadets become Second Lieutenants in the Army Reserve, or Captains in PQO roles.
3. The Late Entry Officer Course for senior soldiers commissioning from the ranks.
The RMAS has an academic faculty staffed by civilian researchers with expertise in Communication and Applied Behavioural Science, Defence and International Affairs, and War Studies.
Unlike some other national military academies such as West Point in the United States, the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in France, the Royal Military College of Canada in Canada, the Pakistan Military Academy in Pakistan, the Nigerian Defence Academy in Nigeria or the Australian Defence Force Academy in Australia, Sandhurst is not a university. It only works with the Open University to award the Regular Commissioning Course 120 credit points towards a distance learning Honours Degree in International Studies which ultimately requires 360 points. Graduate entrants can gain a Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership and Conflict Studies from the Regular Commissioning Course and then embark on a pathway post-commissioning to complete a full master's degree from a university through further electives and a dissertation. Alternatively, non-graduate cadets have the opportunity to earn a BSc in Leadership and Strategic Studies through their military service, which is awarded by the University of Reading.
Sandhurst Group
Under the reforms outlined in the British Army's restructuring plan Future Soldier, the Sandhurst Group formation was reorganised, and is under the control of Home Command. The Commander RMAS Group holds the rank of Brigadier and is the overall commander of the Group and the operations of the Royal Military Academy.The Group is Headquartered at RMA Sandhurst, and takes its name from the Academy. The units that make up Sandhurst Group are:
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Group '' HQ - RMA Sandhurst
- Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
- University Officers Training Corps
- General Staff Centre
- Centre for Army Leadership
Organisation
In overall command of the RMAS is the Commander - a post established in January 2025 as part of the Sandhurst Group re-organisation where RMAS became a brigadier post as opposed to a major-general post. Whilst there is still a Commandant above the Commander, their post is now a mainly ceremonial one. The Commandant's day-to-day job is now to be in charge of the new initial training command. The Commander RMAS is supported by a Deputy Commander. The senior warrant officer, the Academy Sergeant Major, is one of the most senior warrant officers in the British Army. The regular commissioning course is split into three terms, each lasting fourteen weeks. Basic army training is covered in the first five weeks, which, by reputation, are the most gruelling. The main RMAS Commissioning Courses start in January, May and September of each year. Each intake numbers approximately 200 cadets, each of whom is assigned to a platoon within one of two/three companies. Platoons are commanded by captains, with a colour sergeant who takes the main burden of day-to-day training, especially during the first term. There can be as many as seven companies within RMAS at any one time. There can be additional companies of Army Reserve or 'professionally qualified officers' in the Academy who take part in shorter commissioning courses. Each company is commanded by a major and named after a famous battle or campaign in which the British Army fought.Officer cadets on the regular commissioning course nominate two regiments or corps that they seek to join during Junior Term. This choice may be influenced by their instructors, by family connections, or by regimental history, among other factors. Each regiment is looking for different qualities in its officers, and each cadet is considered on a case-by-case basis. At the beginning of Senior Term corps and regiments hold interviews, known as Regimental Selection Boards, to assist the corps and regiments in making offers to Officer Cadets. There can be competition among units for strong cadets and, conversely, among cadets for prestigious or specialised units. In the past, cadets might have been offered a so-called "confirmed cadetship", whereby they would effectively accept a commission into a given regiment prior to commencing the Commissioning Course. As of the January 2023 intake, Confirmed Cadetships are no longer offered to Officer Cadets, other than in very rare cases including technical expertise or a cadet being aged 30 or older when they start the commissioning course. Cadets on the short course will have already been sponsored by a reserve unit, a professionally qualified unit, or a University Officers' Training Corps, and will return to their unit post completion of the course.