German Academic Exchange Service


The German Academic Exchange Service, The German Academic Exchange Service e. V., founded in 1925, is a joint organization of German universities and student bodies to foster their international relations. Joybrato Mukherjee has been President since January 1, 2020.

Tasks and Goals

The DAAD claims to be the world's largest funding organization for the international exchange of students and academics. Since its foundation in 1925, the DAAD has supported more than 3 million academics in Germany and abroad.
However, its workings go far beyond awarding scholarships: promoting the internationalization of German universities and research, providing strategic advice to universities in the field of internationalization and concerning questions of international university marketing, strengthening German studies, the German language and German studies abroad, supporting countries of the Global South in establishing efficient universities as well as advising decision-makers in cultural policy, education policy and development policy.
In 2024, the DAAD, including the EU programmes, supported more than 140,000 people around the globe, making it the largest funding organization of its kind in the world. 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 programs for the establishment of international university partnerships. Scholarships for foreigners are advertised via the DAAD scholarship database and publicized via the German embassies, the DAAD regional offices, the information centers, 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 Program, which is aimed at visual artists, writers and musicians.
The DAAD is also the National Agency for the coordination and implementation of the European Union's Erasmus+ program for the higher education sector.
The statutory name is “Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst”, in legally binding letters with the addition e. V. In its publications, the association also used the variants “Austausch-Dienst” and “Austausch Dienst” to clarify the acronym DAAD until the beginning of 2015.

DAAD-Strategy 2030

In view of the global challenges facing international academic cooperation and according to the DAAD the growing importance of international academic exchange, the DAAD published a new strategy in January 2025. The DAAD Strategy 2030 serves as a compass for the DAAD. It analyzes 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 DAAD Strategy 2030 emphasizes the role of the DAAD as an actor in foreign science policy and science diplomacy and systematically takes current developments at universities and in society into account.
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 the DAAD's three central fields of action - funding, networking, advising - and the three strategic cross-cutting dimensions - sustainability, diversity
, digitalization.

Mission statement of the DAAD

“Change by exchange” is the DAAD's motto. Through international academic exchange, the DAAD promotes the personal development and qualification of people and shapes social and global transformation processes for a better future on the planet.

History

It was founded on January 13, 1925 on the basis of a student initiative under the name “Akademischer Austauschdienst” e. V. in Heidelberg. The headquarters were moved to Berlin in the same year it was founded; the name Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst has been in use since 1931. Immediately after the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the DAAD was brought into line with the Nazis, but it also actively sought proximity to the National Socialist regime itself. Ewald von Massow, a member of the NSDAP, was appointed president. The office in the Berlin City Palace was destroyed by bombing in 1943 and the service was then dissolved in 1945. On August 5, 1950, the DAAD was re-established in Bonn.

Well-known DAAD alumni

Some Nobel Prize winners are DAAD alumni, including:
Other Alumni:
The DAAD's budget comes mainly from public funds, but also from private donors and organizations.
The total budget in 2024 amounted to €752.82 million.

Organisation

Bodies

The President represents the DAAD externally.
In addition to the President and Vice-President, the DAAD Board currently consists of ten representatives of the universities 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,
· the presidents of the German Rectors' Conference, the Goethe-Institut and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
· the General Secretaries of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany and the “Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft”, more specifically their representatives.
The General Assembly meets once a year.

Presidents

Head Office

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 programs but also internships and exchanges of lecturers and other university administration staff. As part of the Erasmus+ mobility programs, 40.063 people were funded in 2024.
In addition to its headquarters in Bonn, the DAAD maintains a capital city office in Berlin, which is located in the WissenschaftsForum Berlin. The renowned DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program is also affiliated with the capital city office.

Regional Offices and Information Centers

A network of 21 regional offices, 36 information centers and 6 German Centers for Research and Innovation in more than 50 countries maintains contact with the partner countries and provides advice on site. The first DAAD regional office was founded in London in 1927, the most recent in Accra in 2024 and in Bishkek in 2025.
The Regional Offices with their founding year: