Principles of Excellence — Protect Your Education Experience

The Principles of Excellence are designed to ensure a fulfilling educational experience, providing you with personal and professional development opportunities to assist in your military career and your transition to the civilian workforce. Furthermore, the principles protect service members from predatory and misleading behavior from educational institutions.

Guidelines for educational institutions

The Principles of Excellence provide guidelines for education institutions participating in the federal tuition assistance program and require institutions to provide the following information:

• Total cost of an educational program
• Prevention of abusive and deceptive recruiting practices
• High-quality academic and student support services for military students
• Re-admittance procedures for students temporarily unable to attend class or having to suspend studies because of military service obligations
• Approval from the institution’s accrediting agency for new courses and program offerings prior to enrolling
• School’s policy for returning unearned tuition assistance funds as stated by Title IV
• Plans for students using federal military tuition assistance and veteran educational benefits
• Designated points of contact for academic and financial advising

Post-secondary educational institutions that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Defense will have acknowledged these requirements, which are aligned with the Principles of Excellence.

Visit the Department of Defense Voluntary Education Memorandum of Understanding website to see if your school is on the list.