Naval Postgraduate School

The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, United States is a graduate school operated by the United States Navy. It grants graduate degrees to its students, who for the most part are either U.S. officers or officers from foreign military services. While most of the degrees it grants are master's degrees, Ph.D. degrees also are awarded. Its location was once a resort; some of its buildings and its cactus garden date from that time.

History

On June 9, 1909, Secretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer signed General Order No. 27, Establishing a school of marine engineering at Annapolis.

Related Topics:
June 9 - 1909 - Secretary of the Navy - George von L. Meyer - Marine engineering - Annapolis

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Within three years, Meyer agreed to a proposal to change the school. On October 31, 1912, he signed Navy General Order No. 233, which renamed the school the Postgraduate Department of the Naval Academy. The order established courses of study in ordnance and gunnery, electrical engineering, radio telegraphy, naval construction, and civil engineering as well as continuing the original program in marine engineering.

Related Topics:
October 31 - 1912 - Naval Academy - Ordnance - Gunnery - Electrical engineering - Radio telegraphy - Civil engineering

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During World War II, Fleet Admiral Ernest King, chief of naval operations and commander-in-chief of both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, established a commission to review the role of graduate education in the Navy. In 1945, Congress passed legislation to make the school a fully-accredited, degree-granting graduate institution. Two years later, Congress adopted legislation authorizing the purchase of an independent campus for the school.

Related Topics:
World War II - Fleet Admiral - Ernest King - 1945 - Congress

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A post-war review team, which had examined 25 sites nationwide, had recommended the old Hotel Del Monte in Monterey as a new home for the Postgraduate School. Negotiations with the Del Monte Properties Company led to the purchase of the hotel and 627 acres (2.5 km²) of surrounding land for $2.13 million.

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In December 1951 the Postgraduate School moved across the nation, establishing its current campus in Monterey.

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Today, the school has over 40 programs of study ranging from the traditional engineering and physical sciences to space science programs.

Related Topics:
Engineering - Physical sciences - Space science

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In the summer of 2005, the Postgraduate School was placed on a list of possible base closures by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission along with the Defense Language Institute. Suggestions were made to move NPS to less expensive land in Ohio, or - if the two bases were permitted to remain in the Monterey Bay area - to combine NPS with the Presidio of Monterey.

Related Topics:
Base Realignment and Closure Commission - Defense Language Institute - Presidio of Monterey

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On August 25, 2005, the BRAC commission voted unanimously to keep both schools in Monterey, and to keep them separate. Under the terms set by the commission, the Navy will relinquish control of the Postgraduate School's classes and research projects to an oversight board (made up of a combination of representatives from the school and civilian educators) which will report to the Secretary of Defense. The plan is intended to cut costs by giving the school more authority to make changes to the curriculum and minimize duplication between NPS and the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio.

Related Topics:
August 25 - 2005 - Secretary of Defense - Air Force Institute of Technology

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