Australian Defence Force Academy


The Australian Defence Force Academy is a tri-service military academy that provides military and academic education for junior officers of the Australian Defence Force in the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force as well as international trainee officers from a variety of countries. In 2016, the academy began accepting civilian students in its undergraduate courses.
Tertiary education is provided by the University of New South Wales' Canberra campus, known as UNSW Canberra at ADFA, which is the awarding body for ADFA qualifications. Apart from educating future leaders of the Australian Defence Force, UNSW Canberra also provides postgraduate programs and short courses both to Department of Defence personnel and the general public.
The stated purpose of ADFA is "to serve Australia by providing the Australian Defence Force with tertiary graduates who have the attributes, intellect and skills required of an officer".
ADFA is located in the suburb of Campbell, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, near the Australian Government district of Russell. It is situated next to Mount Pleasant, which gives some parts of ADFA a view over the rest of Canberra. ADFA is also adjacent to the Australian Army military academy, the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
Junior officers who attend the Australian Defence Force Academy hold the rank of Midshipman in the Royal Australian Navy, Officer Cadet in the Australian Army or Officer Cadet in the Royal Australian Air Force.

History

Establishment

After World War II, each of the three Armed Services adopted, as policy, that the educational standards should be raised for officers in training.
In 1967, an agreement was reached between the Department of Defence and the University of New South Wales, under which they would co-operate to develop the Royal Military College into a degree-level institution. To that end, the university established the Faculty of Military Studies at RMC to conduct courses leading to the award of the university's degrees in arts, science and engineering.
Also in 1967, the University of New South Wales entered into an association with the RAN College enabling it to present approved courses. Subsequently, first year courses for certain University programs in arts, science and engineering were introduced. Successful cadets were sponsored by the Navy to complete bachelor's degrees on the university's campus.
Concurrent with the developments at the RAN College and RMC, from 1967 to 1970, Sir Leslie H. Martin chaired the Commonwealth Government's Tertiary Education Committee into the feasibility of setting up a college for the joint education of officer cadets of the three Armed Services.
Investigations on a wider scale followed with the result that in 1974 the Commonwealth Government announced its intention of establishing a single tertiary institution for the Defence Force. In 1977 the government formally established the Australian Defence Force Academy as a Joint Service Unit under Section 32c of the Defence Act 1903. The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Sir Neville McNamara, simultaneously announced the appointment of Rear Admiral Peter Sinclair, Royal Australian Navy as the Commandant. Construction began on the site in 1981. In February 1984, the University of New South Wales announced the appointment of Professor Geoff Wilson as Rector of the University College. In September 1985 the Interim Academy Council ceased its functions and the Australian Defence Force Academy Council held its inaugural meeting under the Chairmanship of Sir Edward Woodward.
In 1986, ADFA opened and began providing military and tertiary academic education for Midshipmen and Officer Cadets. In late 2003, the Australian Department of Defence entered into another agreement with the University of New South Wales for the operation of University College at ADFA.
In 2015, a $98 million redevelopment was completed.

Criticism, review and reform of ADFA

A parliamentary inquiry conducted by the Joint Standing Committee on Public Works in 1979 opposed the creation of the planned Defence Force Academy and suggested that each individual service maintain oversight of academic training of its officers. The committee's chair Mel Bungey stated the "there was no clear evidence that the training of cadets of all Services in a common establishment would of itself provide any improvement in the quality of officers".
Over its history ADFA has been criticised for its cost of operation and for instances of cadet misbehaviour – bastardisation. In 1998, the Director of the Defence Equity Organisation, Bronwen Grey, led a review into the policies and practices to deal with sexual harassment and sexual offences at ADFA. This review – commonly referred to as the Grey Review – led to fundamental structural and cultural changes at ADFA. These included the abolition of a cadet rank hierarchy and the introduction of improved training in equity and diversity for cadets and staff. Notwithstanding these improvements, the national publicity associated with the review caused considerable damage to the academy's reputation.
In July 2006, LCDR Robyn Fahy – the first woman to graduate from ADFA and the dux of her year – was awarded an undisclosed amount in compensation for abuses suffered during her service in the ADF, including instances of physical and verbal abuse suffered at ADFA. ADFA attracted further criticism from the Canberra gay and lesbian community after its commandant issued an order preventing Academy personnel from frequenting the Cube nightclub – a gay and lesbian venue. The order was in response to then recent violence at the club, in which a patron was stabbed. The ban has since been lifted.
In April 2011, it was alleged a male cadet used Skype to stream video of consensual sex with a female cadet to several other cadets at ADFA. The allegation achieved national media attention, and is the subject of current civil charges in the ACT courts. Aside from this court action, the incident triggered several other inquiries, investigations and reviews into ADFA. These included an inquiry led by Mr Andrew Kirkham QC into ADFA's management of the incident, and a review led by Elizabeth Broderick Sex Discrimination Commissioner, into the treatment of women at ADFA. The Broderick Review found that ADFA was a greatly improved institution since the 1990s, and that the extreme cultural concerns identified by Bronwen Grey in 1998 were no longer apparent. Notwithstanding, the Broderick Review found there were still structural and cultural deficiencies at ADFA which contributed to widespread, low-level sexual harassment. This review has led to a second tranche of major reform at ADFA, which is still underway.
In November 2014, the Australian Government's Defence Abuse Response Taskforce recommended that a royal commission be conducted to consider all allegations of abuse at ADFA since its establishment in 1986.

Open day

ADFA has a yearly open day with displays of military hardware, demonstrations and flypasts. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 the physical open day was replaced by an on-line event. The 2026 open day is scheduled for Saturday 15 August.

Commandants

The following officers have served as commandants of the academy:

Awards

ADFA's academic education is run by the University of New South Wales, and it offers awards at the Diploma, Associate Diploma, Bachelor's Degree, Master's Degree, and Doctorate levels.
Under its agreement with the Department of Defence, the University of New South Wales provides Midshipmen and Officer Cadets with a tertiary education at its University College campus, which is located on the academy grounds.
Midshipmen, Officer Cadets and civilians undertake three- and four-year undergraduate degrees at ADFA. Currently, undergraduate degrees include:
However, those who do well academically and militarily have the possibility to return to ADFA for one year in order to do honours, as long as their respective services authorise further training. In addition to honours in Engineering, UNSW@ADFA offers honours in:
Post-graduate studies are provided to civilians, senior members of the ADF and senior public servants. Increasingly, distance-education units are being offered for service members not based in Canberra.

Entrance requirements

Entry requires candidates to complete a separate military and academic application, candidates must be successful in both to receive an appointment to ADFA. UNSW and ADF have invested considerable effort in maintaining a high standard of academic performance. "83 per cent of the more than 600 students enrolled in the three-year course had tertiary entrance scores higher than 80 per cent, placing them among the nation's best academic performers".

Student performance

"ADFA's GTS – Good Teaching Scale – is 54, and nearly triple the Group of Eight median of 20.53. It's SPR – Student Progress Rate, which calculates the ratio of the load passed to total course load – is 93.7, compared with the Go8 median of 88. Its OSI – Overall Satisfaction Index – is 72, the Go8 median of 39.1."