Royal Netherlands Naval College

The Royal Netherlands Naval College (Dutch: Koninklijk Instituut voor de Marine or KIM) in Den Helder is the service academy of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The KIM offers a program of four or five years and also a short course of sixteen to twenty-two months. Upon the completion of the program a graduate is awarded a bachelor's degree and is commissioned in the Royal Netherlands Navy. The training of officers for the Royal Netherlands Army and Royal Netherlands Air Force is done by the Koninklijke Militaire Academie in Breda.

History

The Royal Netherlands Navy was officially founded in 1815, but existed in various forms since 1488. In the early years of the Navy, officers were trained in service aboard ships. In 1785, the 'Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart' the first land-based training school for future officers, opened. This school was the predecessor of the KIM. During the time of the Batavian Republic (1795-1806), as the Dutch Navy began to become more organized, the training school was improved as well. With the forming of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 10 January 1816, an institute for training naval officers was founded in Delft. Twelve years later, it was moved to a site near Medemblik, and many improvements were made for the move. A boarding school system was introduced, and the institute applied for officer training. On 28 August 1829, the opening...
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