German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is the world’s largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and academics. It originated from a student initiative and was founded in 1925. It is supported by German higher education institutions and their students – in 2020, 242 higher education institutions and 105 student councils were registered members.

The DAAD is funded primarily by federal funds from the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union. Other sponsors are foreign governments, companies, foundations and the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. The DAAD headquarters are in Bonn, and the DAAD also maintains a capital city office in Berlin, to which the renowned Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme is affiliated. A network of 68 foreign offices and around 470 lectorates worldwide maintains contact with the most important partner countries on all continents and provides on-site counselling.

German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW)

The German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW) is a research institute funded by the German federal and state governments and based in Hanover and Berlin. As an international centre of excellence in higher education and science research, the DZHW conducts data collection and analyses, produces research-based services for higher education and science policy and provides the scientific community with a research infrastructure in the field of higher education and science research.

The DZHW’s research is theory-led and practice-oriented. A particular strength of the DZHW’s research lies in the long-term observation of developments in higher education and science, partly also in an international comparative perspective. The surveys of those entitled to study, students and graduates, which are unique in Germany, are profile-forming. The research work at the DZHW focuses on the topics of educational trajectories and employment, the research system and science dynamics, governance in higher education and science, and methods of empirical social research.