The teaching provided at the National Defence University is based on responsible, networked and effective competence providing up-to-date education to future officers. 

Close collaboration with key partners

The National Defence University is proud of its networked and constantly expanding collaboration with its higher education partners. In Finland, these partners include Aalto University, LUT University, the University of Turku, the University of Jyväskylä, the University of Oulu, the University of Vaasa and Laurea University of Applied Sciences. Multidisciplinary joint professorships, for which ideas are constantly generated, are practical examples of these partnerships.

Of international military educational establishments, the partners of the NDU include the French War College, Helmut Schmidt University in Germany, the War Studies University in Poland, the Swedish Defence University and the Baltic Defence College.  

Responsible and international teaching

All teaching content at the NDU is compared to the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030. In 2022, responsibility was conveyed more strongly to teaching and international education through courses on topics such as the impacts of climate change on modern crises and the gender perspective of military operations. 

In 2022, the National Defence University provided training courses to more than 1,100 persons, of whom approximately 650 were on the national defence courses and approximately 400 on the courses of the Finnish Defence Forces International Centre FINCENT, which operates as part of the NDU.