The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a naval command with a graduate university mission. While principally focused on technological education and research, effective program management skills are essential to developing solutions into capabilities. NPS Department of Defense Management (DDM) recently earned an important new accreditation for its project management degree programs, furthering its goal to develop the Navy’s and DOD’s premier, acquisition leaders to accelerate transition and adoption of emerging technologies at greater speed and scale.

The Global Accreditation Center for Project Management Education Programs (GAC) conferred full accreditation status this Fall upon four resident and distance learning (DL) project management degree programs: the Master of Science in Defense Program Management (curriculum 816); the Master of Science in Program Management via NPS Online (curriculum 836); and the resident and distance learning Advanced Acquisition Studies certificate programs (curricula 217 and 218). 

In the first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy published in January 2024, new acquisition strategies in program management that will result in reduced development times, costs, and increased scalability are prioritized. For mid-career military and civilian students, NPS provides the opportunity to apply real-world experience with graduate education and research to develop innovative solutions to program management challenges.

"This accreditation allows us to showcase that we are committed to the highest standards, not only in our courses but also in our graduates, who are held to those high standards for project management," noted Dr. Bob Mortlock, DDM associate chair. "Besides the fact that we're the only defense-relevant graduate education program management degrees in the world, the accreditation distinguishes us from all other program management degrees and highlights our commitment to excellence in teaching and research."

"Our students benefit because they graduate with project management professional certification that is globally recognized," he added. "This benefits NPS, which directly translates to the Navy and ultimately to the national security of the U.S. as a whole."

Established in 2001, the GAC is recognized as the world's leading specialized accrediting body for quality assurance of project management and related degree programs. More than 135 project management degree programs in 22 countries around the world are currently accredited by GAC.

Degree programs that achieve GAC accreditation must demonstrate and meet the organization's rigorous global standards of accreditation, which include an assessment of each program's objectives and outcomes, faculty and student evaluations, onsite and online resources, annual self-evaluation, and proof of continuous improvements in project management education.

NPS' project management degree programs are perfectly aligned with this, as noted in the GAC's accreditation determination report.

"The interviews conducted by the GAC onsite visit team held with faculty, NPS leadership, support staff, and other university stakeholders revealed the programs have a strong focus on ensuring student success and developing competent project and program managers that are acquisition specialists ready to further their careers in their respective services," the report's authors observed.

"As a U.S. Navy military installation led by civilians and veterans, the programs at NPS clearly understand their target student population and have a direct link to the end application of their students' eventual mission," the report continued.

The authors also recognize that the term  acquisition  in the context of defense procurement does not simply denote "purchasing" something, but as noted in the GAC report, it implies "the processes involved in the conception, research, development, testing, and fielding a product, capability, or service for use by a warfighter, agency, or larger system." 

In other words, acquisition is a multi-disciplinary undertaking involving planning, risk mitigation, budgeting, contracting, and modeling and simulation, says Mortlock, all of which NPS excels at in educating new generations of program managers.

"That's what we teach our students," he said. "NPS is the only defense school that offers those master's degrees that are defense relevant. We're the only one that has our student body and our faculty that we have, and the only one that aligns that with the acquisition research program that we have."

GAC accreditation is effective for five years, through August 31, 2029.