All soldiers will now need approval from their supervisors before they can receive financial assistance under the Army’s Tuition Assistance program, which helps soldiers pay for taking higher education classes.
The new requirement for the program was one of several recent policy changes to the service’s regulation for the Army Continuing Education System, which oversees educational programs and services. As part of the new policy, soldiers also need command approval for credentialing assistance — a separate Army program that helps soldiers pay to obtain industry-recognized credentials, such as certifications for information technology and project management.
Prior to the most recent policy updates, soldiers did not need command approval to request tuition assistance, said Maj. Travis Shaw, an Army spokesperson.
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Under the new requirement, a “supervisor” is defined as the person who signs a soldier’s performance report, Shaw told Task & Purpose. If that person is unavailable, soldiers can ask a member of their chain of command or another person appointed by the commander to approve their tuition assistance requests, he said.
When Task & Purpose asked if the requirement was meant to reduce the amount of money that the Army spends on tuition assistance for soldiers, Shaw replied: “The intent of command approval for Tuition Assistance and Credentialing Assistance requests is to ensure leadership visibility into soldiers’ voluntary education activities and will help soldiers balance their education efforts with service responsibilities, including deployments and unit training activities.”
Stars and Stripes first reported that soldiers now need command approval for tuition assistance requests. The program pays active-duty, National Guard and Reserve soldiers up to $4,500 per year for a maximum of 18 semester hours, according to the Army. Soldiers can receive financial assistance for up to 130 hours total of undergraduate credit and 39 semester hours of graduate credit.
The updated regulation codifies changes that the Army first announced in 2024. At the time, Army officials also announced cuts to credentialing assistance, including reducing the maximum amount of money soldiers could receive each year from $4,000 to $2,000.
Army Human Resources Command announced in a March 19 Facebook post that the service made several changes to its programs that help soldiers pay for both secondary and vocational training, including requiring soldiers’ supervisors to approve their requests for tuition and credentialing assistance.
“These updates are designed to support long-term sustainability of Army education benefits, preserve resources for Soldiers where they’re most needed, and increase leader involvement in the approval process,” the post says.
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