National Defence University (Finland)


The Finnish National Defence University is the Finnish Defence Forces' university located in Helsinki. The university trains officers for the Defence Forces and the Finnish Border Guard. The main campus is located in Santahamina, Helsinki with additional sites in Kruununhaka, Sörnäinen and in Tuusula.
Prior to 2007, the school referred to itself, in English, as the National Defence College.

History

The first army officer school in Finland, then part of Sweden, was the, which was founded by Georg Magnus Sprengtporten in 1780 and was located in Kuopio and was then relocated to Rantasalmi in 1781. Initially it was established to train officers for the Savo Brigade of the Swedish Army, but soon it began to recruit cadets from all of Finland. The school continued operation even after the Finnish War in 1809, where Finland was ceded to the Russian Empire. However, in 1818, a fire broke out in the building, and the school was moved to Hamina to become the Hamina Cadet School.
The Hamina Cadet School was located in Hamina and trained officers for the Russian Empire. It was abolished on July 24, 1903 under the influence of various orders given during the first period of repression of Finland by the Russian Empire.
After independence, the Finnish officer training was always divided among three schools until 1992: initial education at the Kadettikoulu, General Staff Officer Training at the Sotakorkeakoulu, as well as continuous training at the Taistelukoulu. From the beginning of 1993, all of these schools were merged into the National Defence University, one of the largest colleges of higher education for officer education.
In 2001, the Maanpuolustusopisto in Lappeenranta was decommissioned, but the school was immediately repurposed to provide freshman and army training for the National Defence University, as the Army Academy.

Rectors of the National Defense University

Degrees

It is possible to get the following degrees in the National Defence University:

Service branch schools

The following establishments are responsible for the branch- or service-specific education of the students:
Besides these, Military Museum of Finland, National Defence Courses departments and the National Defence University Library operate under National Defence University.