Strategy with five big goals

Since 1925 the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has established itself as one of the biggest organisations that encourage international exchange. At the end of 2008, DAAD membership numbered 229 higher education institutions and 125 student bodies

The DAAD is a joint organisation of Germany’s higher education institutions and is responsible for promoting international academic relations, primarily through the exchange of students, academics and researchers. Its programmes are generally open to all disciplines and all countries and equally benefit foreigners and Germans.

The DAAD also supports the international activities of Germany’s higher education institutions by providing a number of services. These include information and publication programmes, marketing, consultancy, support and guidance services, plus an increasing number of institutional programmes that serve to raise the international profile and worldwide appeal of Germany’s higher education institutions.

And, finally, the DAAD advises the German government on the formation of its policies in the fields of international cultural relations and academic relations at European and international level, as well as on questions of national higher education and development cooperation.

The predecessor to the German Academic Exchange Service, the “Austauschdienst der Hochschulen”, was first established in 1925 in response to an initiative in academic circles. It was dissolved in 1945 and newly established in 1950 as a registered association under private law.

The DAAD’s full members are – on application – the higher education institutions represented in the German Rectors’ Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz – HRK) and the student bodies of these institutions. At the end of 2008, DAAD membership numbered 229 higher education institutions and 125 student bodies, with all the various types of higher education institutions represented.

Five strategic objectives give the various DAAD programmes their long-term orientation:

1. Scholarships for foreigners: To promote studies and research by outstanding young foreign students and academics at German universities and research institutes.
2. Scholarships for Germans: To promote young German professionals in their studies and research abroad (including ERASMUS).
3. Internationalising the higher education institutions: To raise the appeal of Germany’s higher education institutions (including marketing and funding to raise the international dimension of German higher education).
4. Supporting German studies and the German language abroad: To promote German language and culture and encourage a knowledge of and interest in Germany as part of the process of global cultural exchange.
5. Educational cooperation with developing countries: To promote higher education development in developing and reforming countries as means of supporting their economic and democratic reform processes.

The DAAD also performs a number of special responsibilities that aim to encourage and fund Europe-wide mobility by students, academics and professionals. The DAAD is the so-called “national agency” for the EU ERASMUS programme and an information centre for ERASMUS Mundus, Europass, TEMPUS / cooperation between EU and non-EU countries and the Bologna process.

Link: www.daad.de