Student Achievement

NDU Graduation Rates by College and Program

College	Program	AY2016-17	AY2017-18	AY2018-19	AY2019-20	AY2020-21	AY20221-22	AY2022-23	AY2023-24
Master's Degrees
College of Information and Cyberspace	M.S. in Government Information Leadership	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%	95.92%	100.00%	98.04%
College of International Security Affairs	M.A. in Strategic Security Studies	97.98%	97.67%	100.00%	98.48%	100.00%	100.00%	98.53%	98.53%
Eisenhower School	M.S. in National Resource Strategy	99.00%	99.33%	100.00%	99.66%	99.64%	99.98%	99.65%	100.00%
Joint Forces Staff College	M.S. in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy	97.22%	92.31%	97.37%	100.00%	95.55%	95.56%	100.00%	95.56%
National War College	M.S. in National Security Strategy	99.03%	99.51%	99.02%	100.00%	99.04%	98.57%	100.00%	100.00%
Graduate Certificates
Joint Forces Staff College	Joint and Combined Warfighting	100.00%	99.52%	99.52%	99.46%	99.59%	100.00%	99.48%	99.37%
Joint Forces Staff College	Joint and Combined Warfighting (Hybrid)	99.60%	97.75%	94.31%	85.37%	89.67%	87.43%	91.30%	--

NDU Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

NDU’s ILOs for academic year 2023-24 are:

ILO 1: Foster collaborative relationships across joint, interagency, international, and cultural boundaries.
ILO 2: Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in support of national security decision-making.
ILO 3: Create strategy and policy options in support of national security interests.
ILO 4: Communicate effectively to provide clear and concise military and policy recommendations.
ILO 5: Apply principles governing the profession of arms, civil-military relations, and ethics to support strategic level decision-making. (New ILO for AY24)

National Defense University Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) are assessed through Program Learning Outcomes (PLO) and/or Student Learning Outcome (SLO) attainment in the following Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) master’s degree programs:


College of Information and Cyberspace	College of International Security Affairs	Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy	Joint Forces Staff College	National War College
Master of Science Strategic Information and Cyberspace Studies	Master of Arts Regional Defense Fellowship Program (Strategic Security Studies)	Master of Science National Resource Strategy	Master of Science Joint Advanced Warfighting School	Master of Science National Security Strategy
CIC-SICS	CISA-RDFP	ES-NRS	JFSC-JAWS	NWC-NSS

Table 1: Representative institutional percentages of JPME Master’s degree graduates, academic year 2023-2024

Table 2: NDU ILOs mapped to PLOs or SLOs for JPME master’s program graduates, academic year 2023-2024.

Institutional Learning Outcome	Program	Corresponding PLO/SLO
ILO 1: Foster collaborative relationships across joint, interagency, international, and cultural boundaries.	CIC-SICS	PLO 1: Evaluate how nations use information and/or cyberspace capabilities to achieve national security goals.
	CISA-RDFP	PLO 4: Evaluate the complexities of leading global teams and participating with a range of partners as part of joint, interagency, and multinational security efforts. PLO 2: Create joint warfighting approaches in support of broader strategies to help achieve policy outcomes within the contemporary security environment.
	ES-NRS	PLO 1.c.: Apply effective communication (oral) of strategic concepts and ideas across joint, interagency, multinational and industrial base environments.
	JFSC-JAWS	PLO 2: SYNTHESIZE national security policy and strategic direction and PRODUCE a military strategy to achieve strategic objectives and policy goals. PLO 3: APPLY operational design methodologies and joint planning processes to LEAD the collaborative development of campaign, contingency, and crisis plans with joint, interagency, and multinational allies and partners. PLO 4: ANTICIPATE future challenges, ASSESS risks, and ADAPT joint warfighting concepts to create advantage.
	NWC-NSS	SLO 4a: Foster collaborative relationships across joint, interagency, international, and cultural boundaries.
ILO 2: Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in support of national security decision-making.	CIC-SICS	PLO 5: Apply principles of strategic leadership to include effective communication, creative and critical thinking, decision-making and ethical conduct.
	CISA-RDFP	PLO 3: Apply critical thinking skills to anticipate emerging threats, evolving challenges, and strategic opportunities.
	ES-NRS	PLO 1.a.: Apply critical and creative thinking to support strategic level decision-making across joint, interagency, multinational and industrial base environments.
	JFSC-JAWS	PLO 1: ANALYZE complex strategic and operational environments; EVALUATE threats, opportunities, and risks; and CONSTRUCT options to employ military force in coordination with other instruments of national power. PLO 3: APPLY operational design methodologies and joint planning processes to LEAD the collaborative development of campaign, contingency, and crisis plans with joint, interagency, and multinational allies and partners. PLO 5: RESEARCH, ANALYZE, and EVALUATE the strategic environment; SYNTHESIZE conclusions; and PROPOSE recommendations to inform strategic decision-making.
	NWC-NSS	SLO 4c.1: Demonstrate critical thinking in support of national security decision-making. SLO 4c.2: Demonstrate creative thinking in support of national security decision-making.
ILO 3: Create strategy and policy options in support of national security interest.	CIC-SICS	PLO 2: Create information policy, strategy, and campaign plan options that support joint warfighting and achieve national security objectives. PLO 3: Create cyber policy, strategy, and campaign plan options that support joint warfighting and achieve national security objectives.
	CISA-RDFP	PLO 1: Evaluate strategies, and the role of irregular warfare as part of those strategies, within the contemporary international security environment. PLO 2: Create joint warfighting approaches in support of broader strategies to help achieve policy outcomes within the contemporary security environment.
	ES-NRS	PLO 6.a.: Develop policy options in support of evaluating resources to achieve national security objectives. PLO 6.b.: Develop policy options in support of marshaling resources to achieve national security objectives. PLO 6.c.: Develop policy options in support of, managing resources to achieve national security objectives.
	JFSC-JAWS	PLO 2: SYNTHESIZE national security policy and strategic direction and PRODUCE a military strategy to achieve strategic objectives and policy goals. PLO 4: ANTICIPATE future challenges, ASSESS risks, and ADAPT joint warfighting concepts to create advantage.
	NWC-NSS	PLO 3.1.1: Evaluated the utility of all instruments of power to address national security challenges during armed conflict. PLO 3.1.2: Evaluated the utility of all instruments of power to address national security challenges across the spectrum of cooperation, competition, conflict, and war, below the level of armed conflict. PLO 3.2.1: Evaluated the orchestration of all instruments of power to address national security challenges during armed conflict. PLO 3.2.2: Evaluated the orchestration of all instruments of power to address national security challenges across the spectrum of cooperation, competition, conflict, and war, below the level of armed conflict.
ILO 4: Communicate effectively to provide clear and concise military and policy recommendations.	CIC-SICS	PLO 5: Apply principles of strategic leadership to include effective communication, creative and critical thinking, decision-making and ethical conduct.
	CISA-RDFP	PLO 2: Create joint warfighting approaches in support of broader strategies to help achieve policy outcomes within the contemporary security environment.
	ES-NRS	PLO 1.b.: Apply effective communication (written) of strategic concepts and ideas across joint, interagency, multinational and industrial base environments. PLO 1.c.: Apply effective communication (oral) of strategic concepts and ideas across joint, interagency, multinational and industrial base environments.
	JFSC-JAWS	PLO 1: ANALYZE complex strategic and operational environments; EVALUATE threats, opportunities, and risks; and CONSTRUCT options to employ military force in coordination with other instruments of national power. PLO 2: SYNTHESIZE national security policy and strategic direction and PRODUCE a military strategy to achieve strategic objectives and policy goals. PLO 3: APPLY operational design methodologies and joint planning processes to LEAD the collaborative development of campaign, contingency, and crisis plans with joint, interagency, and multinational allies and partners. PLO 5: RESEARCH, ANALYZE, and EVALUATE the strategic environment; SYNTHESIZE conclusions; and PROPOSE recommendations to inform strategic decision-making. PLO 6: MODEL ethically guided strategic leadership to advise senior officials, foster relationships, and mentor subordinates.
	NWC-NSS	SLO 4d.1: Communicate effectively in writing to provide clear and concise military and policy recommendations. SLO 4d.2: Communicate effectively orally to provide clear and concise military and policy recommendations
ILO 5: Apply principles governing the profession of arms, civil-military relations, and ethics to support strategic level decision-making	CIC-SICS	PLO 4: Analyze the ethical, legal, and policy implications of emerging and disruptive technologies on the changing character of war.
	CISA-RDFP	PLO 2: Create joint warfighting approaches in support of broader strategies to help achieve policy outcomes within the contemporary security environment. PLO 4: Evaluate the complexities of leading global teams and participating with a range of partners as part of joint, interagency, and multinational security efforts.
	ES-NRS	PLO 2.a.: Apply principles governing the profession of arms to support strategic level decision-making. PLO 2.b.: Apply principles governing civil-military relations to support strategic level decision-making. PLO 2.c.: Apply principles governing ethics to support strategic level decision-making.
	JFSC-JAWS	PLO 3: APPLY operational design methodologies and joint planning processes to LEAD the collaborative development of campaign, contingency, and crisis plans with joint, interagency, and multinational allies and partners. PLO 6: MODEL ethically guided strategic leadership to advise senior officials, foster relationships, and mentor subordinates.
	NWC-NSS	SLO 4b.1: Apply principles governing the profession of arms to support strategic level decision-making. SLO 4b.2: Apply principles governing civil-military relations to support strategic level decision-making. SLO 4b.3: Apply principles governing ethics to support strategic level decision-making.

Table 3: ILO Levels of Achievement for JPME master’s degree graduates, Academic Year 2023-2024

Table 4: Student Self-Report of ILO achievement on End-of-Year (EOY) Survey

Further detail and disaggregation of data by program and student type, to inform decision-making is available internally.

Joint Acculturation Outcomes

One of NDU’s educational standards, as prescribed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Officer Professional Military Education Policy, is to “develop joint awareness, perspective, and attitudes” (CJCSI 1800.01E).

Specifically, NDU curricula prepare graduates to operate in a joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational environment, reflected in the mix of students and faculty, the critical analyses of current and emerging national strategies from a joint perspective, and a commitment to joint and interagency cooperation.

The Joint Acculturation Survey is designed to measure the development of joint attitudes and perspectives, common beliefs, and trust, which occurs when diverse groups such as our student body come into continuous, direct contact. Beginning in AY 2018, all NDU master’s students complete the instrument at the beginning and end of the academic year.

In AY 2024, students reported a higher “ability to effectively contribute to a joint team” at the end of the program (Mean = 6.22, SD = 1.13) compared to their ability at the beginning (Mean = 5.99, SD = 1.24). In addition, the following charts show that perceptions of the various US Service cultures changed over time. The charts represent scores on a nine-item semantic differential scale. Overall, at the post-test occasion, services patterns are more similar, indicating a trend towards perceiving fewer differences or more “jointness.”

Perceptions of US Service Cultures: Pre-test

Perceptions of US Service Cultures: Post-test

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