Navy Tuition Assistance Program

There are two avenues to receiving funding from the Navy Tuition Assistance (TA) Program: Traditional and Certificate Programs.

Traditional Degrees

Tuition Assistance is the Navy's educational financial assistance program. It provides active duty personnel funding for tuition costs for courses taken in an off-duty status at a college, university or vocational/technical institution. The academic institution must be regionally or nationally accredited by an agency recognized by the Department of Education. The academic institution must also be a signatory of the Department of Defense Memorandum of Understanding (DOD MOU).

Navy TA pays for both classroom and independent study/distance learning courses in semester, quarter, or clock hours. Clock hour courses must lead to an eligible certificate/diploma program.

Navy TA pays, up-front, the tuition charged by educational institutions for course enrollments. Navy TA pays 100 percent of tuition costs for courses applicable to the completion of a high school diploma or equivalency certificate. For other education levels, there is a fiscal year credit limit of 12 semester hours or equivalent quarter hours. TA funding is capped at 120 semester hours (or equivalent quarter hours) in a career. This excludes courses taken to complete a high school diploma.

College degrees must be in semester or quarter hours. Certificate/diploma programs can be in semester, quarter, or clock hours (NAVADMIN 219/16).

Payment for tuition will not exceed the following caps:

• $250.00 per semester hour
• $166.67 per quarter hour
• $16.67 per clock hour (eligible certificate/diploma programs only)

For additional information, go to the Navy Tuition Assistance website.

Certificate Programs

Sailors may pursue one certificate program-using semester, quarter, or clock hours from approved DoD Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) schools if such programs are also approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

For a list of approved DoD Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) schools visit the following link: https://www.dodmou.com/Home/InstitutionList

For reference information, see: https://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/messages/Documents2/NAV2016/NAV16219.txt

For further assistance on Navy Tuition Assistance opportunities:

Navy College Program Website
Navy College Virtual Education Center (NCVEC)
EST Mon-Thurs 0700 – 1900, Fri 0700 - 1200
Phone (toll-free): 1-877-838-1659