Royal Military College commandant defends value of education at the institution

The value of an education at Kingston’s Royal Military College (RMC) is being called into question.

In his report this week, Canada’s auditor general says RMC costs twice as much as other universities and turns out graduates that are lacking in military education and leadership skills.

Michael Ferguson says military training at the school takes a back seat to academics and costs about $40,000 a year more per student than a civilian university.

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“We will not argue with the fact that it costs more, we are going to launch our own study to see if we are twice as much as what they say but just to be fair with us, they did compare us to small Canadian universities which no other university provide a fully bilingual program in both official languages,” Brig.-Gen. Sebastien Bouchard,  commandant of RMC, said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We will not argue with the fact that it costs more, we are going to launch our own study to see if we are twice as much as what they say but just to be fair with us, they did compare us to small Canadian universities which no other university provide a fully bilingual program in both official languages," Brig.-Gen. Sebastien Bouchard,  commandant of RMC, said.

Meanwhile, Kingston and the Islands MP Mark Gerretsen doesn’t agree with the auditor general’s report.

“I don’t think it is an accurate assessment.  I genuinely think when you compare the Royal Military College of Canada to any other to university in Canada you’re comparing apples to oranges.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I don't think it is an accurate assessment.  I genuinely think when you compare the Royal Military College of Canada to any other to university in Canada you're comparing apples to oranges."

Bouchard says many of the criticisms in the report are already being addressed after Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance ordered a special review of the institution earlier this year.