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The Joint Advanced Command and Staff Programme

Develop further in your career in the Armed Forces

The Joint Advanced Command and Staff Programme (HOP) is an academic officer education with the aim of developing officer competence towards taking on great responsibility at senior management level. Senior military leadership requires a broad ability to solve complex problems from several perspectives. It also requires independence, the ability to think critically, creatively and constructively.

The training is a mix of theory, discussion, practical exercises, practical training, study trips and supervision. You always have a clear connection to your future professional role and great focus is placed on developing your ability to lead and make decisions.

After the programme, you should be able to plan, lead and follow up joint operations, both humanitarian and military operations, along the entire conflict scale.

As a major subject, you study war studies, but you also take courses in military technology and law with a focus on international law.

Some of the courses are taught in English in order to be able to work as a military commander and staff officer both nationally and internationally at senior management level. The NATO dimension is integrated throughout the programme's structure and courses.

HOP leads to a master's degree in military studies depending on whether you attend HOP1 or HOP12. The education is commissioned by the Swedish Armed Forces, which also decides on the direction of your degree even before you are admitted.

Briefly about the Joint Advanced Command and Staff Programme

The Joint Advanced Command and Staff Programme (HOP) is a contract education for the Swedish Armed Forces, which appoints both Swedish and international participants. The purpose of HOP is to cover the Armed Forces' need for competence development in the officer profession.

In general terms, the purpose of HOP is to further educate professional officers towards leadership and military work at higher management level.

The Armed Forces cooperate with higher education institutions for officers in other countries. Each year, a selection is made among the students at the Joint Advanced Command and Staff Programme who are given the opportunity to study abroad for a year instead of studying the second year at HOP (HOP12) at the Swedish Defence University.

From a promotion point of view, the year abroad is equivalent to HOP12 - with the difference that those who study the second year abroad do not receive a master's degree in war studies like those who take HOP12 at the Swedish Defence University.

The Swedish Armed Forces decide whether you should take HOP 1, which covers one year of study and leads to a master's degree (60 credits), or HOP 12, which covers two years of study and leads to a master's degree (120 credits).

The programme leads to a master's degree in one of the subjects

  • War Studies,
  • defence systems;
  • military history or
  • leadership and management.

The Swedish Armed Forces will decide on the direction of your degree even before you are admitted.

HOP has a growing number of international exchanges with Finland and the United States, among others. This means an opportunity for foreign officers to study the entire Higher Officer Programme, HOP1 and HOP12, at the Swedish Defence University.

A basic prerequisite is that the officers who are considered have basic knowledge of Swedish. English is increasingly used as the language of instruction and, through NATO, also as the language of operation. Examples of international participants who attend the entire HOP can be found from Norway, Finland, Lithuania, South Korea and Germany. After completing the training, the foreign officers receive a master's degree in War Science.

A unique academic environment

Wargaming and education

By using war games, students at the Swedish Defence University learn how to plan and conduct military operations on land, in the air, and at sea.

Personer i ett rum under pågående krigsspel.

"I now recognize the ethical responsibility"

When Axel Boltenberg and his classmates visited the Auschwitz concentration camp, it was with the aim of stimulating a reflection process centered on ethical dilemmas.

Axel Boltenberg.

German exchange officer with his sights set on the Nordic region

Meet Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Rost, German army officer who chose to study two years as an exchange officer at the Higher Officer Program at the Swedish Defence University.

Porträttfoto