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German Academic Exchange Service

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

German Academic Exchange Service
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
AbbreviationDAAD
Formation1925
TypeEingetragener Verein (registered association)
HeadquartersBonn, Germany
President
Joybrato Mukherjee
Staffapprox. 1220
(Bonn, Berlin and worldwide)
Websitewww.daad.de

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD; German: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), is a joint organization of German universities and student bodies that was founded in 1925 to foster their international relations.

History

[edit]
100th anniversary logo

The organisation was founded as "Akademischer Austauschdienst" e. V. (AAD) on 13 January 1925 in Heidelberg, based on a student initiative. The headquarters were moved to Berlin later that year. It was renamed Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD; English:German Academic Exchange Service[1]) in 1931. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, DAAD sought to secure future funding by realigning its purpose with Nazi ideology.[2] Ewald von Massow, a member of the NSDAP, was appointed president.[when?][citation needed] The office in the Berlin City Palace was destroyed by bombing in 1943 and the service was then dissolved in 1945.[2]

On 5 August 1950, the DAAD was re-established in Bonn.[citation needed] Until the beginning of 2015, the association used the variants "Austausch-Dienst" and "Austausch Dienst" in its publications to clarify the acronym DAAD.[citation needed]

In 2021, DAAD's activities in Belarus were suspended at the request of the Belarusian authorities.[3] In 2026, DAAD was designated as an "undesirable organisation" in Russia.[4]

Joybrato Mukherjee, who has been DAAD president since 1 January 2020, was re-elected for the second term running from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2027. [5][6]

In 2025, DAAD celebrated its 100th anniversary.[1][7]

Tasks and goals

[edit]

DAAD's purpose is to promote the international exchange of students and academics.[8] As of 2025 it is the world's largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and academics.[9] having supported 132,903 people worldwide in 2025 and 140, 925 (including EU programmes)[10]

Main building in Bonn

However, its activities go far beyond awarding scholarships. The organisation also promotes the internationalisation of German universities and research, offers strategic advice to universities in the field of internationalisation and marketing, strengthens German studies, the German language abroad, supports countries of the Global South in establishing efficient universities, and advises decision-makers on cultural, education and development policy.[11]

In 2024, the DAAD, including the EU programmes, supported more than 140,000 people around the globe, making it the largest funding organisation of its kind in the world.[12] Its services range from semesters abroad for bachelor's and master's students to doctoral studies, from internships to guest lectureships, from information visits to the establishment of universities abroad. The DAAD supports the international activities of German universities through marketing services, publications, events and training courses, but also through special funding programmes for the establishment of international university partnerships.[13] Scholarships for foreigners are advertised via the DAAD scholarship database[14] and publicised via German embassies, DAAD regional offices, information centres (ICs),[8] DAAD lecturers, and partner universities abroad. Contact with the DAAD for German students is usually arranged by the International Office of a university. One exception is the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme, which is aimed at visual artists, writers, and musicians.

DAAD is also the national agency for the coordination and implementation of the European Union's Erasmus+ programme for the higher education sector.

DAAD flags on Kennedyallee, Bonn

The organisation's statutory name is Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst e.V. (German Academic Exchange Service). Until the beginning of 2015, it is also used the variants "Austausch-Dienst" and "Austausch Dienst" in its publication to clarify the acronym DAAD.[citation needed]

DAAD Strategy 2030

[edit]

In view of the global challenges facing international academic cooperation and the growing importance of international academic exchange, the DAAD published a new strategy in January 2025. This DAAD Strategy 2030 serves as a compass for the organisation. It analyses the current framework conditions of international academic cooperation and, on this basis, formulates the priorities and goals of the DAAD's work until 2030. The strategy emphasises the role of the DAAD as an actor in foreign science policy and science diplomacy and systematically takes account of current developments at universities and in society.

Against this background, the DAAD Strategy 2030 sets four priorities:

  1. strengthening Germany as a location for science, innovation and business
  2. solutions for global challenges
  3. science diplomacy in a multipolar world
  4. promoting democracy and social cohesion

These priorities are formulated in ten strategic goals in DAAD's three central fields of action - funding, networking, advising - and the three strategic cross-cutting dimensions - sustainability, diversity, and digitisation.

Mission statement

[edit]

"Change by exchange" is the DAAD's motto. Through international academic exchange (mission), the DAAD promotes the personal development and qualification of people and shapes social and global transformation processes for a better future on the planet (vision).[citation needed]

Notable alumni

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Some Nobel Prize winners are DAAD alumni,[15] including:

Other Alumni:

Funding

[edit]

The DAAD's budget comes mainly from public funds (Federal Foreign Office, BMBF, BMZ, EU, etc.), but also from private donors and organisations.

The total budget (total funds) in 2024 amounted to €752.82 million.[12]

Organisation

[edit]

DAAD employs around approx. 1220 people worldwide[9]

Bodies

[edit]

The President (see adjacent) represents the DAAD externally.

In addition to the President and Vice-President, the DAAD Board currently consists of ten representatives (m/f) of the universities (Presidents, Rectors or Heads of the International Offices) and three student representatives. The Board members are elected by the General Assembly, whereby the student representatives must have the majority of all votes and those of the student bodies. The representatives of the universities are elected every four years, those of the student bodies every two years. The following are also co-opted as guests

· Representatives of the financing federal ministries (AA, BMBF and BMZ),

· the presidents of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), the Goethe-Institut and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH)

· the General Secretaries of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK) and the “Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft”, more specifically their representatives.

The General Assembly meets once a year.

Presidents

[edit]
Name Term of Office
from to
Alfred Weber 1925 1925
Viktor Bruns 1925 1931
Theodor Lewald 1931 1933
Ewald von Massow 1933 1942
Gustav Adolf Scheel 1942 1945
Theodor Klauser 1950 1954
Werner Richter 1954 1959
Emil Lehnartz 1960 1968
Gerhard Kielwein 1968 1972
Hansgerd Schulte 1972 1987
Theodor Berchem 1988 2007
Stefan Hormuth 2008 2010[12]
Sabine Kunst 2010 2011[8]
Margret Wintermantel 2012 2019
Joybrato Mukherjee 2020 as of 2025[24]

Head office

[edit]
Kai Sicks (2024)

The DAAD Head Office is headed by Secretary General Kai Sicks. In 2019, the budget volume amounted to 594 million euros, the number of permanent positions as well as project and third-party funded positions was 929. In 2021, the DAAD funded around 64,000 students, graduates, scientists, artists and administrators: 14,427 came to Germany from abroad, 49,825 Germans gained experience all over the world. The “National Agency for EU Higher Education Cooperation” within the DAAD is responsible for implementing Erasmus+ activities in the higher education sector, coordinating not only study abroad programmes but also internships and exchanges of lecturers and other university administration staff. As part of the Erasmus+ mobility programmes, 40.063 people were funded in 2024.

In addition to its headquarters in Bonn (Kennedyallee 50), the DAAD maintains a capital city office in Berlin, which is located in the WissenschaftsForum Berlin. The renowned DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme is also affiliated with the capital city office.

Regional offices and information centres

[edit]
DAAD Information Center in Yaoundé, Cameroon

A network of 21 regional offices, 36 information centers (ICs) and 6 German Centres for Research and Innovation (DWIH) in more than 50 countries maintains contact with the partner countries and provides advice on site (as of 2024).

The first DAAD regional office was founded in London in 1927, the most recent in Accra in 2024 and in Bishkek in 2025.[citation needed]

The Regional Offices with their founding year:

DAAD-Freundeskreis e. V.

[edit]

Foreign students on DAAD scholarships are supported in Germany by former German DAAD scholarship holders who are members of the DAAD-Freundeskreis e. V.

The Circle of Friends was founded in 1981 and has around 1500 members nationwide. There are regional groups in many university cities which organize the support of foreign scholarship holders.[35]

DAAD friends groups and alumni associations of former foreign scholarship holders exist in many countries.

Other

[edit]

According to a survey conducted in 2020, participants in the DAAD's Erasmus+ programmes (around 79,000 participants) enter into living relationships with foreign partners (27%) twice as often as students who have not spent time abroad (13%). Furthermore, the unemployment rate for Erasmus+ students five years after graduation is 23% lower than for those who have not been abroad for study or training purposes.[36]

Since 2021, the DAAD has been supporting students who are formally or de facto denied the right to education or other basic rights in their home countries with the Hilde Domin programme.[37]

Prizes

[edit]

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize

The DAAD awards an annual Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize to academics from abroad for “outstanding work in the fields of German literature and linguistics, German as a foreign language and German studies”. The award, in memory of the linguists and founders of German studies Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, is endowed with 10,000 euros and is associated with a four-week research stay at a German university.[citation needed] The Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize honours new scholars in the same research fields.

AA Prize

Together with the Federal Foreign Office, the DAAD has awarded the Federal Foreign Office Prize for excellent support for foreign students at German universities (AA Prize), which has been awarded annually since 1998 (endowed with €20,000 since 2013[38]).

University Integration Prize

The “University Integration Prize for outstanding commitment to the integration of refugees who are able to study”, or University Integration Prize for short, has been awarded by the DAAD and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2021. The prize is intended to highlight particularly innovative and successful projects and initiatives, identify projects with a model character and encourage sustainable further development.[39]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 Nina (May 28, 2025). "100 Years DAAD – 100 Years Change by Exchange". Academic Cooperation Association. Retrieved August 11, 2026.
  2. 1 2 "1933-1949: Rise of the National Socialists, Voluntary Conformity, dissolution and reestablishment". DAAD.
  3. ↑ "Беларускія ўлады патрабуюць спыніць дзейнасць Інстытуту Гётэ і Германскай службы акадэмічных абменаў". Novy Chas (in Belarusian). June 30, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Germany: Newsroom".
  5. ↑ "DAAD-Präsident im Amt bestätigt". www.daad.de. Archived from the original on April 19, 2026. Retrieved August 22, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee zum neuen DAAD-Präsidenten gewählt - DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst". www2.daad.de. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  7. ↑ "DAAD 100th anniversary" (audio+ text). European Association for International Education. February 26, 2025. Retrieved August 11, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 "Wer wir sind". www.daad.de (in German). Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  9. 1 2 "Jahresbericht (Annual report)". DAAD (in German). 2025. Retrieved August 11, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Jahresbericht". www.daad.de (in German). Archived from the original on August 11, 2026. Retrieved August 22, 2026.
  11. ↑ © DAAD (August 22, 2025). "Strengthening universities and higher education systems in developing countries". www.daad.de/.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Jahresbericht". www.daad.de (in German). Archived from the original on June 17, 2025. Retrieved July 11, 2025. Annual report 2024
  13. ↑ "Infos & Services für Hochschulen". www.daad.de (in German). Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  14. ↑ "Stipendiendatenbank - DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst". www2.daad.de. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  15. ↑ "History". www.daad.de. Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  16. ↑ "DAAD, New York City: Sound Understanding - A Gala Concert - get invited to more events like this". www.eventme.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  17. ↑ "Berliner Künstlerprogramm". www.berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de. Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  18. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001". NobelPrize.org. Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  19. ↑ (www.dw.com), Deutsche Welle. "Kenyan Environmental Activist Wins Nobel Peace Prize | DW | 08.10.2004". DW.COM. Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  20. ↑ "DAAD gratuliert Herta Müller zum Literaturnobelpreis". idw-online.de (in German). Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  21. ↑ DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. "Friedensnobelpreis 2017: Für eine Welt ohne Atomwaffen - DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst". www2.daad.de (in German). Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  22. ↑ DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. "Literaturnobelpreise gehen an DAAD-Alumni - DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst". www2.daad.de (in German). Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  23. ↑ "Chin, Unsuk | JetztMusik | SWR2". swr.online (in German). Archived from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  24. ↑ "Zukunft braucht Erinnerung". www.daad.de (in German). Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  25. ↑ DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst e.V. (November 23, 2006). "Außenstelle London - About us". www.daad.org.uk (in German). Archived from the original on January 6, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  26. ↑ "Startseite". www.daad.eg (in German). Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  27. ↑ "Accueil". www.daad-france.fr (in French). Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  28. ↑ DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst e.V. (November 23, 2006). "Außenstelle Rio - No Brasil". www.daad.org.br (in German). Archived from the original on December 26, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  29. ↑ DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. "Von Anfang an - DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst". www.daad.de (in German). Archived from the original on November 2, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  30. ↑ "DAAD-Außenstelle Peking | DAAD". www.daad.org.cn (in German). Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  31. ↑ DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst e.V. (November 23, 2006). "DAAD Niemiecka Centrala Wymiany Akademickiej - Über uns". www.daad.pl (in German). Archived from the original on December 26, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  32. ↑ DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. "Von Anfang an - DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst". www.daad.de (in German). Archived from the original on November 2, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  33. ↑ DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst e.V. (November 23, 2006). "Außenstelle Hanoi - Die DAAD-Außenstelle Hanoi". www.daadvn.org (in German). Archived from the original on December 26, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  34. 1 2 "2021 Jarhresbericht" (PDF). DAAD. 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 24, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  35. ↑ "DAAD-Freundeskreis e.V. | DAAD-Alumniverein in Deutschland" (in German). Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  36. ↑ "Studie zur Wirkung von Erasmus: Auslandsaufenthalte steigern Beschäftigungsfähigkeit und berufliche Mobilität". European Commission - European Commission. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  37. ↑ "Hilde Domin-Programm". www.daad.de (in German). Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  38. ↑ DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. "Preis des Auswärtigen Amtes für exzellente Betreuung ausländischer Studierender an deutschen Hochschulen (AA-Preis) - DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst". www.daad.de (in German). Archived from the original on April 13, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2025.
  39. ↑ "Ausschreibung Hochschul-Integrationspreis". www.daad.de (in German). Retrieved July 11, 2025.
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