News from Germany

DAAD, DFG and HRK call for improvements to the new EU Budget

In a joint press communication, the DAAD, the DFG (German Research Foundation) and the HRK (German Rectors’ Conference) call for improvements to the EU budget 2021-2027 as proposed by the European Council on 21 July. In the view of the three science organisations, the funding earmarked for education and research under the new seven-year EU financial framework and the Corona Economic Recovery Plan "Next Generation EU" has fallen well short of expectations and future requirements. Therefore, DAAD, DFG and HRK call for the "Horizon Europe" and "Erasmus+" programmes to be better financially equipped in order to secure and strengthen the European education and research area in the long run.

DAAD’s President Joybrato Mukherjee states: “It is disappointing and unreasonable that the agreed budget for Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe falls short of the necessary and already estimated increases. The DAAD supports the European Parliament’s call for the planned budget for these two programmes to be increased.”

The link is available here.

New programme to further develop the digitalisation of German universities

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the DAAD support the further development of digitalisation at German universities with the new ‚International Programme Digital‘ (IP Digital). IP Digital shall further develop study programmes, which are already internationally successful, and make them future-proof until 2020. It also aims to create impulses and models for internationally compatible digitisation standards at German universities.

The link is available here.

New BMBF funding programme to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA)

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will support the strategic reorientation of the ERA with the funding programme "Innovation Union Europe - German Impulse for the ERA". This national funding programme with a total volume of €40 million pools measures which are intended to enable German research institutions to improve European networking and closer coordination in the ERA and to promote cross-border knowledge transfer in industry and society. The programme also aims at promoting skills and boosting citizen science and communication.

The brochure of the programme is available here.

News from DAAD

DAAD study and project: Preparing international students for studying in Germany

The DAAD carried out a survey among university representatives between May 2019 and January 2020 to examine the preparation and entry of international students into higher education in Germany. The results are summarised in an overview study which analyses how German universities prepare international students for studying in Germany.

The vast majority of German higher education institutions offer free preparatory courses for international students on a voluntary basis, mostly in physical presence formats. Furthermore, there exists also a wide range of virtual formats or “blended learning”.

Therefore, the DAAD – together with German HEIs and other actors – developed the “Digital Campus” project, which aims to develop a portal of interconnected platform services for information, marketing, recruitment, as well as linguistic, professional and cultural preparation of international students, who want to study in Germany.

The link to the study (in German) is available here.

The link to the project (in German) is available here.

Publications

DAAD working paper: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on German universities

The DAAD conducted a survey between the end of April and mid-May 2020 and interviewed International Offices from 268 German universities. In the end, the DAAD published a working paper. The results show that the coronavirus crisis had a strong impact on international student mobility, but also that the universities seized the opportunity to further develop digital teaching and learning.

A majority of international students was unable to begin their exchange semester in Germany, and around 80,000 left Germany. At the same time, universities made use of digital tools for online teaching and learning. They provided either completely virtual events or offered a mix of classroom and digital teaching. Moreover, the closure of student residences could largely be prevented, which the Head of Studies Dr Jan Kercher considered as “very gratifying”.

The prudent crisis management by German universities was also reflected in a survey among international students worldwide, ranking Germany third in terms of handling the COVID-19 pandemic (after New Zealand and China).

Link to the press release.

Link to the DAAD working paper.