BALTDEFCOL reaches an important milestone: NATO Institutional Accreditation 

  

Today, on 15th August, the Baltic Defence College (BALTDEFCOL) family members celebrated one significant achievement and important milestone in the College's history. 

In July 2022,  BALTDEFCOL received a certificate signed by the Deputy Chief of Staff Joint Force Development of the NATO Allied Command of Transformation (ACT) granting the BALTDEFCOL unconditional institutional accreditation status. This marks yet another historic milestone in the recognition of BALTDEFCOL’s high-quality standards in delivering education and BALTDEFCOL’s relevance for NATO and its partners. 

This is the result of the College’s purposeful efforts over the last couple of years during which the internal Quality Assurance (QA) processes and quality management system were reviewed, assessed against the standards and guidelines established by NATO, and finally improved. This was done based on the Self-assessment Report prepared by BALTDEFCOL in 2020, followed by NATO’s Quality Assurance Team’s on-site visit to Tartu in 2021. The process was finalized by the NATO Evaluation Report of the BALTDEFCOL Quality Assurance System. The areas of evaluation by NATO were as follows leadership and management, personnel management, management of resources, delivery of education, students' assessment, support for training and learning, and contribution to NATO requirements. The unconditional Institutional Accreditation of the Baltic Defence College is valid for six years until July 2028.  

  

The BALTDEFCOL educates students from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as more than 15 other allied and Partner nations. The education is conducted in English applying NATO standards and procedures. The courses namely Senior Leaders’ Course, Higher Command Studies Course, Joint Command and General Staff Course, Command Senior Enlisted Leaders' Course and Civil Servants’ Course are at the strategic and operational level and aim to prepare participants for high and highest national and international positions, including the respective leadership positions at Ministries of Defence as well as NATO and EU headquarters.  

  

To preserve this status in the future, the College will go through the re-accreditation cycle and another assessment of its QA system. Meanwhile, the College will maintain and review its Quality Management System and standards through an annual reporting process.  

 

The Operational Level Energy Security Course and the Intermediate Strategic Communications Course meet the educational needs requirement of NATO and are ACT certified. Both courses are offered as electives to BALTDEFCOL students and are open to external participants. The next iteration of these courses is the week of 20-24 March 2023 (more details are to be found on the BALTDEFCOL website and the Education and Training Opportunities Catalogue (ETOC).