The Higher Command Studies Course 2005 concluded on 8 December with a graduation ceremony at the History Museum of the University of Tartu.

Fourteen students from eleven different states graduated from the Course.  Representatives from their states and friends and staff of the College joined the students to mark their graduation.

The ceremony opened with remarks from the Course Director, Higher Command Studies Course, Lieutenant Colonel Andis Dilans and from the College Commandant, Brigadier General Algis Vaiceliunas, who thanked the students for their participation and congratulated them on their achievements.

The students were also congratulated by the three senior representatives of the HCSC sponsoring states, Mr Lauri Lindström, Deputy Permanent Undersecretary for Defence Policy, Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Estonia, Mrs Ilona Drege, Deputy State Secretary for Administration and Legal Matters, Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia, and Mr Tomas Graziunas, Undersecretary for Resource Planning and Finance, Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania.

Following the graduation of the students and the presentation of their diplomas, the ceremony was closed with an address by the studentsÂ’ representative, Commander Milenko Crljen, from the Republic of Croatia.  Commander Crljen thanked the three Baltic States and the College for their vision in establishing the Higher Command Studies Course and urged his fellow students to put into practice all they had learned during their four months in Tartu.