On behalf of the Council of Military Education Committees (COMEC) and the University of Birmingham, we write to invite you to our annual conference, taking place at the University of Birmingham on 23 and 24 November 2026. The AGM will take place on the 23 November 2026, while the Conference will take place on 24 November 2026.
This year’s theme is “Strengthening the Bond Between Universities and Defence.”
To sign up for the Conference, please fill out this brief form: COMEC Annual AGM and Conference Signup – Fill out form.
There is no Conference registration fee.
This year’s conference brings together representatives from universities, Military Education Committees (MECs) and Defence to explore how we can strengthen collaboration in response to the changing security environment.
We are delighted to announce that our keynote speaker is Paul Mason, who will be giving a keynote entitled “The 35 Daughters of National Resilience – What Could the DUA Achieve?” Paul Mason is a writer, journalist and political consultant. A life-long member of the Labour Party, he is a radical social democrat, passionately engaged in the defence of democracy, humanism and universal rights. He is the author of eight books, including his latest: Reds: A Global History of Communism. He is adjunct fellow at the Council on a Geostrategy and senior visiting fellow at the University of Exeter. He held the pen for Labour’s Defence Industrial strategy at the design phase of the DUA.
The programme will also include a panel discussion on the strengths, challenges and opportunities in university-Defence collaboration, alongside a particular focus on the student and officer cadet experience, exploring the opportunities, skills and connections students gain through engagement with Defence, and how universities and MECs can better support them.
An interactive workshop, ‘DUA and Beyond: How COMEC, MECs and Universities Can Work Together to Support Defence’, will explore opportunities for closer collaboration, including the role of the Defence Universities Alliance (DUA), engaging the wider pool of defence-interested universities, and identify practical next steps.
The conference will be preceded by the COMEC AGM on Monday 23 November, followed by a black-tie dinner with General Sir Patrick Sanders, former Chief of the General Staff, who will deliver an address entitled ‘The 1937 Moment: Are We Ready for the Next Decade of Danger?’
To sign up for the dinner, please register here: https://uobevents.eventsair.com/defence-studies-dinner-nov-2026/defence-dinner-registration/Site/Register. The deadline to register and purchase your dinner ticket is Thursday 5 November 2026. The dinner costs £53.00, which includes a three-course menu, water and tea & coffee.
Yours sincerely,
The COMEC Conference Organising Committee
Professor David Dunn, MBE (University of Birmingham)
Professor Gerri Matthews-Smith (Edinburgh Napier University)
Dr. Robert Ralston (University of Birmingham)
Professor Katharine Wright (Newcastle University)