Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is a joint association of German institutions of higher education and student bodies. Its main task is to support the international exchange of students and scholars. Providing scholarships for about 98,000 individuals per annum, DAAD is one of the world’s largest non-governmental funding organisations. Moreover it supports the internationalisation of German universities, promotes German studies and the German language abroad, assists developing countries in establishing effective universities and advises decision makers on matters of cultural, education and development policy.
On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), DAAD has also been acting as the National Agency for the ERASMUS programme in Germany since 1987. Since then, programmes, responsibilities as well as budgets in European and international higher education cooperation have multiplied. The National Agency now deals with the Bologna Process, the ERASMUS programme, EU-Third Country Cooperation in Higher Education and hosts the ASEM Education Secretariat until 2013.
DAAD’s budget is derived mainly from the federal funding for various ministries, primarily the German Federal Foreign Office, but also from the European Union and a number of enterprises, organisations and foreign governments. Its head office is in Bonn, but the DAAD also has an office in the German capital, Berlin, to which the famous Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme (Berliner Künstlerprogramm) is closely affiliated. It maintains contact with and provides advice to its main partner countries on every continent via a network of 15 regional offices and 54 information centres.
DAAD runs over 250 programmes, which range from semesters abroad for undergraduates to doctoral programmes, from internships to visiting lectureships, and from information-gathering visits to assisting with the establishment of new universities abroad. It supports the international activities of German institutions of higher education through marketing services, publications, the staging of events and training courses.
DAAD’s programmes have the following five strategic goals:
- to encourage outstanding young students and academics from abroad to come to Germany for study and research visits and, if possible, to maintain contact with them as partners life-long;
- to qualify young German researchers and professionals at the very best institutions around the world in a spirit of tolerance and openness;
- to promote the internationality and appeal of Germany’s institutions of higher education;
- to support German language, literature and cultural studies at foreign universities;
- to assist developing countries in the southern hemisphere and reforming countries in the former Eastern Bloc in the establishment of effective higher education systems.

None declared

None declared

None declared

Mr Siegbert Wuttig (Head of National Agency for EU Higher Education Cooperation)

IV - Think tanks, research and academic institutions

Academic institutions