The DAAD is the world’s largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and researchers.
Since it was founded in 1925, around 2.6 million scholars in Germany and abroad have received DAAD funding. It is a registered association and its members are German institutions of higher education and student bodies. Its activities go far beyond simply awarding grants and scholarships. The DAAD supports the internationalisation of German universities, promotes German studies and the German language abroad, assists developing countries in establishing effective universities and advises decision makers on matters of cultural, education and development policy.
Its budget is derived mainly from the federal funding for various ministries, primarily the German Federal Foreign Office, but also from the European Union and a number of enterprises, organisations and foreign governments. It maintains contact with and provides advice to its main partner countries on every continent via a network of regional offices and information centres.
In 2020, the DAAD funded more than 110.000 German and international scholars worldwide. The funding offers range from a year abroad for undergraduates to doctoral programmes, from internships to visiting lectureships, and from information gathering visits to assisting with the establishment of new universities abroad. Voluntary, independent selection committees decide on the funding. The DAAD supports the international activities of German institutions of higher education through marketing services, publications, the staging of events and training courses. (https://www.daad.de/en/the-daad/who-we-are/ )
Change by exchange...is the motto of the DAAD. Exchange promotes understanding between countries and individuals and helps secure the peace. New scientific findings enable us to meet global challenges. Cooperation contributes to political and social progress. (https://www.daad.de/en/the-daad/who-we-are/motto/ )
DAAD in AZ
After gaining the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan, DAAD has started operating as a local lectureship since 1997 and has entered to the DAAD worldwide network as a Baku Information Center since 2004. (https://www.daad.az/en/about-us/daad-information-centre-baku/ )
This Information Centre at ADNSU was closed in December 2020 due to a worldwide new structure of DAAD and now Azerbaijan is part of the Regional Office for the South Caucasus in Tbilissi, Georgia.
Nowadays Azerbaijan is at the 2nd position according the number of applications for DAAD scholarships (master and summer courses in Germany) right after the USA.
Mara-Lisa Gezer is lecture at the ADU since September 2018 and since then has supported the Germanistik Institut at ADU through giving classes for Bachelor and Master students, organizing cultural events like Christmas , Easter or Carneval as well as giving trainings for teachers to develop new methods and gain contemporary knowledge. She is working closely with the German Embassy as well as the Goethe Centre, SLZ language school and German reading salon at Tebriz street.
In the last 5 years approx. 100 students, teachers and scientists from Azerbaijan benefit every year from a scholarship of DAAD through programs like full scholarship of master studies, summer- or winter schools and research periods at German universities.
