photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Strong Hall on the University of Kansas campus is pictured in September 2021.

The University of Kansas has received a $1.8 million grant that will allow it to remain one of a handful of universities that serve as designated foreign language trainers for the U.S. military.

With the Department of Defense grant, which will be paid out over a three-year period, KU will be designated as a Language Training Program for the U.S. military through at least 2025, according to a university press release.

KU is just one of nine U.S. higher education sites that serve as Department of Defense language training centers. KU has been designated as a language training site by the military since 2013. Language classes are provided to military members both on the Lawrence campus and at KU facilities at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. Classes also are offered online. Members of many branches of the military take the classes.

KU in the next year is offering special military classes in Arabic, French, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Ukrainian. All of KU’s modern language departments are part of the language training program and could offer classes to the military at various times.

In addition to the grant money, the program helps boost KU enrollment, as members of the military are enrolled as KU students and receive academic credit for their classes.