Royal Military Academy: Admissions

Andrew Rosindell
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people have applied for a place at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in each month of the last five years; and how many of those applications were rejected in each such month.

Bill Rammell
The following table provides the number of applicants who attended the three and half day Army Officer Selection Board (AOSB) and those that were successful.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Financial year |Those that having applied to join the Army were invited to attend AOSB|Those that were successful at AOSB|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2009-10 to date|613                                                                   |294                               |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2008-09        |1,482                                                                 |816                               |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2007-08        |1,068                                                                 |608                               |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2006-07        |1,602                                                                 |843                               |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2005-06        |1,531                                                                 |865                               |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2004-05        |1,140                                                                 |604                               |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Those that are found unsuccessful at any stage of the officer recruitment process will be given feedback on where they have not met the required standard. Those who attend AOSB and are unsuccessful are rarely rejected outright. Their application will usually remain open, should they at some point decide to re-apply.

These figures do not include: serving soldiers applying to become officers, potential Gurkha officers, Territorial Army applicants or professionally qualified officer applicants (doctors, lawyers, etc).