The Department of Military Studies at the University of Sydney ran courses from 1907 to 1915. The manner in which it functioned and the role it played is not widely understood, in particular how it was integrated with the Commonwealth Military Forces. Within the history of the development of the Australian military it is usually treated as a footnote before the arrival of Royal Military College Duntroon, and discarded as having limited impact. This article challenges that assumption, demonstrating how significant the Department's influence was within the Commonwealth Military Forces as an early example of integration between tertiary education and professional military education, while also situating the Department within the context of wider British Empire officer education.