In the spring of 2011, a new German scholarship programme saw the light of day, the Deutschlandstipendium. It was modelled on a predecessor scheme of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which was discontinued with the launch of the Deutschlandstipendium. This grant scheme is a public-private partnership jointly funded by private donors - corporations, foundations and alumni, for example - as well as the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The students are selected by their higher education institution.  The programme supports top talents with very good grades, but the expectation is also that grantees are civically engaged or succeeded academically despite considerable obstacles related to their social or other background.

The grant is meant to be a contribution to the cost of living and study. The monthly stipend rate is only EUR 300. But many scholarship holders also benefit from close contact with and opportunities provided by the private donors, such as mentoring progammes, networking events, workshops or internships. The very competitive scheme funded about 1% of Germany’s student population in 2018 - slightly more than 27,000 students. The private contribution to the grants amounted to EUR 28 million in 2018, for which the ministry provided matching funds worth the same.

On 5 and 6 September, this year’s annual conference was held in Bielefeld.  Four universities were awarded a prize: Berlin’s Free University, the University of Konstanz, the University of Applied Science Nordhausen, and the Technische Hochschule Nürnberg. In the eyes of the jury, they excelled in the attempt to couple academic excellence with social responsibility. The approaches of the four higher education institutions all put much emphasis on diversity.

More information here.