The “New Structure of the Armed Forces”, along with the landmark reforms accompanying it, has begun to show visible results, influencing this year’s university applicants to pursue a military career through the Panhellenic Examinations.

The change is not only due to the fact that admission to Military Academies was opened this year for the first time to candidates from all academic fields.

Rather, the increase in salaries for students, the integration of advanced technology into the Greek Armed Forces, as well as the broad recruitment campaign launched by the military leadership to attract new professional personnel — as previously reported by Proto Thema — appear to have begun producing results.

Indicative of this shift, three military schools are among the 10 institutions with the largest increases in admission scores this year:

• Hellenic Army Academy (Evelpidon) – Arms Corps: increase of 3,895 points.
• Hellenic Army Academy (Evelpidon) – Arms Corps, special category: increase of 2,695 points.
• Hellenic Air Force Academy (SMYA) – Operational Support Direction: increase of 2,590 points.

On the other hand, among the 10 schools with the largest drop in admission scores this year was:

• Non-Commissioned Officers Academy – Corps Division: decrease of 1,960 points.

Full enrolment

The shift in direction compared with previous years, when military academies faced low demand, is also reflected in the fact that all available positions were filled this year except those at the Hellenic Naval Cadets Academy — something that had not happened in the recent past.