The Officers' Training Corps (OTC), sometimes called the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), is a part of the British Territorial Army which provides military leadership training to students at British universities.
The name is misleading in that its mission is not the training of commissioned officers; only a small minority of OTC members go on to further train, and subsequently, be commissioned as officers in the Regular or Territorial Army. However, in recent years there has been a greater effort at OTCs to raise awareness of the career opportunities within the Regular or Territorial Army (although the mission statement has not changed). It is similar in some ways to the United States Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps, with which several OTCs have a regular exchange. However, a fundamental difference is that ROTCs are actually officer training establishments and thus have a rather different ethos and work ethic. The Ministry of Defence marketed the OTC as "a University/College club with a great and varied social life ... where you'll find some of the cheapest drink on campus."
In 2011, an MoD study recommended the downgrading of UOTCs to sub-units (commanded by a major rather than a lieutenant colonel) and the formation of twelve Officer Training Regiments, each comprising one or two OTC companies and a TA Officer Training Wing. The study also concluded that OTC Officer Cadets should not be attested or paid in their first year.
Read more about Officers' Training Corps: History, Present Day, Mission Statement, Training, Adventurous Training and Social Life, Individual Units, Inter-OTC Competitions, Bans
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