Jacko,
OK! I hear you but a few more snippets from RAF list: Commissioned 1978 (at 18 and 4 days). If he subsequently/immediately went to Uni as per the BEagle scheme he would have graduated from a 3-year course in 1981 then back to Cranners for IOT and, hey presto, he graduates in 1982 as you suggest.
Liverpool John Moores; praise of the Jag; suggestion that he is an engineer "getting ac serviceable" (or words to that effect) etc etc - all a smokescreen as the hounds have been closing in for days.
I await BEagle's news on what schemes were on offer in the 70s!