Laura Culley is due to spend six months in Iraq

Until Laura announced the Army wanted her as a translator Mr Culley and his wife, Annette, assumed she would finish her degree before marrying in June.

The couple still have concerns, but concede the Arabic student had to take "an opportunity that presented itself".

Laura, from Weymouth, Dorset, is among five students already working in Iraq.

The Army recruited them after finding it had a shortage of interpreters to work through a mountain of documents from Saddam Hussein's fallen regime and to help troops communicate with locals.

The Ministry of Defence expects a total of 16 students to work in its areas of control in the south-east of the country for six months each.

Study break

Mr Culley, a policeman, said that the news of his daughter's impromptu gap year "was a bit of a shock".

But he added: "I was quite happy she had researched the matter very thoroughly.

Laura is currently staying in one of Saddam's old palaces and it's palatial beyond compare Andrew Culley

"She's not one for going off half-cock."

The Culleys speak to their daughter frequently by phone and e-mail and say that while her study break may not be the most conventional, it is doing wonders for her Arabic.

She is also getting the chance to see a side of the world off limits to all but a handful of people.

"Laura is currently staying in one of Saddam's old palaces and it's palatial beyond compare," Mr Culley said.

Personal safety

Miss Culley, an undergraduate at Exeter University's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, has to be secretive about her work translating documents found by coalition forces.

But her work also involves direct contact with Iraqis, which has introduced her to the poverty faced by ordinary people, Mr Culley said.

Security is a priority when Laura travels outside the military compound, but things have gone smoothly so far.

"There was one incident when there was a group of young Iraqis who were less than complimentary, but she had quite a few soldiers with her," Mr Culley said.

He is confident personal safety training in the UK, in addition to instruction in the nuances of Arabic military terms, will stand her in good stead.

Next year Laura and a friend also working for the Army in Iraq are expected to rejoin their course.

Laura is also due to marry fianc� Captain James Marshall, who is also in Iraq, with the Royal Logistic Corps.

What comes next for a graduate with work in Iraq on her CV is something Mr Culley is not prepared to speculate on.