New Programme for International Cooperation for German Universities

The German Academic Exchange Service and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research promote strategic partnerships

Bonn, 1 February 2013. German higher education institutions can receive up to € 250,000 per year from a new DAAD programme aimed at strengthening their international profile. A first selection round has produced 21 projects which will be funded for a maximum of four years. The programme supports these projects in building up strategic partnerships and thematic networks with foreign universities. Higher education institutions from 29 countries are involved in the selected projects. The USA and China are particularly well represented. The programme ''Strategic Partnerships and Thematic Networks'' is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education, which is providing almost € 3,000,000 in the first year alone.

''The ‘Strategic Partnerships and Thematic Networks’ marks the advent of a new programme generation at the DAAD, aimed at strengthening the networking capabilities of German universities with excellent universities abroad and thereby enhancing the international profile of German higher education institutions'', explains DAAD President Margret Wintermantel.

The shift towards a stronger control of cross-border university cooperations is a worldwide trend among excellent and internationally oriented universities. This is exactly where this programme comes in, offering German universities the opportunity and incentive to get involved and play a major part in shaping this trend. 

''Our aim is to promote the strategic internationalisation of our higher education institutions'', said German Federal Minister of Education Annette Schavan. ''This programme helps open up new opportunities for international cooperation in research and lecturing.''

The modular structure of the programme gives universities an individual flexibility in implementing their respective projects. Selected partnerships can hence be expanded in keeping with a university’s own internationalisa-tion strategy and key priorities.