1.34 The College receives feedback from a number of external bodies on the quality of its training. For example, the Junior courses are subject to audit by the respective single Service authorities.
1.35 For the Advanced and Higher courses the College takes direct assurance as to the quality of the teaching delivered by its academic contractors. The academic teaching underpinning this is subject to the normal quality assurance system operated for all higher education establishments. For example, as part of a review of the War Studies Department of King's College, London in Autumn 2001 the Quality Assurance Agency assessed the academic elements of the Advanced course, awarding maximum marks and praising the College's teaching and students.
1.36 As for direct assurance on the quality of the military teaching of the joint courses, the College has been asked by overseas staff colleges to take the lead in the international benchmarking of best practice in command and staff training. This is an example of the esteem in which the College is held by its peers and of how it has started to position itself as a world class provider of command and staff training. As part of this exercise, the College has developed a checklist for assessing the quality of a staff college which is based closely on the Quality Assurance Agency's practice when reviewing higher education establishments. It has already used this checklist to review the Baltic Defence College. In turn the College invited the German Staff College to assess its own performance in November 2001.