DAAD Scholarship 2025-2026

DAAD Scholarship

DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) is a German Academic Exchange Service that offers a wide range of scholarships for international students, researchers, and professionals to study or conduct research in Germany. Germany is a popular study destination by international standards. The many excellent universities and research institutions offer a wide range of studies and courses across all subject areas. For international students English-language study programmes with special support services are of particular interest. DAAD Scholarship 2025-2026 is a fully funded scholarship for international students. This scholarship is available to pursue masters or PhD at the top German Universities. DAAD scholarships cover monthly payments of 934 euros for graduates or 1,300 euros for doctoral candidates.

Are you looking for English-language bachelor’s degree programmes in various subjects? Would you like to study an English-language master’s degree in engineering or in law, economics and social sciences? You will find what you are looking for here. This scholarship programme offers you the opportunity to continue your academic education in Germany with a postgraduate course of study. The scholarships are funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.

DAAD provides:

• Scholarships & grants (for all disciplines, at all stages);
• Information and counseling about studying & research in Germany;
• Support for internationalization of German universities;
• The study of German language and culture abroad.

Key Features

DAAD offers scholarships for postgraduate studies at German universities, primarily for students from developing and newly industrialized countries. These scholarships cover a wide range of fields, including public health, development studies, engineering, and management.

• Full or partial scholarships
• Monthly stipend (around €850 for master’s students)
• Travel allowances
• Health, accident, and personal liability insurance
• Coverage of tuition fees (if applicable)

Selection process

Scholarship applications are reviewed by an independent and voluntary selection committee. This may be made up of local and/or German university teachers, researchers and DAAD Lecturers. Depending on scholarship programme and the local situation, the best applicants may also be required to introduce themselves personally. This can take place either on site, face-to-face, or virtually.

Depending on programme, the selection decision is made either by the local selection committee directly or – in the case of a two-stage selection procedure – by another independent committee of academics in Germany. DAAD staff are not entitled to vote in the scholarship selection procedure.

The key selection criteria are:

Professional qualification

• Academic achievements (grade point average, development of grades)
• Academic progress
• Knowledge of the language(s) of instruction or working language(s)
• Academic performance (general grade point average, grade development)
• School-leaving certificate, if applicable
• Course of studies
• Knowledge of the language of instruction or working language
• If applicable, relevant internships, work experience

Quality of the study or research project

Study project:

• Quality of the study project and of the preparation (preliminary information, choice of degree programme, host university and establishment of contacts)
• Integration of the project into the academic career path
• Quality of the study project as well as the preparation (preliminary information, choice of study programme, host university and establishment of contacts)

Research project:

• Quality of research proposal and preparation (originality, topicality and relevance of the project, choice of host institution and first contacts)
• Feasibility and consistency of study plan and schedule
• Incorporation of project within the overall doctorate (in terms of content and time), if relevant
• Quality of the research project as well as the preparation (originality, topicality and relevance of the project, choice of host institution and establishment of contacts).
• Feasibility and consistency of the work plan and timetable (analysis and evaluation steps)
• Embedding of the project in the overall doctoral project (in terms of content/time), if relevant

Potential of the applicant

• Motivation: academic and personal reasons for the stay in Germany, German language skills (if different from the working language);
• Prospects: Significance of the stay in Germany for further academic, professional and personal development.
• Extracurricular commitment: extracurricular knowledge and skills, social commitment.
• Motivation: professional and personal reasons for the stay in Germany, German language skills (if different from the working language);
• Perspectives: Importance of the stay in Germany for further academic, professional and personal development

In addition, in order to ensure equal opportunities, the selection committee may take into account special circumstances, which you can state in the application form. Examples of “special circumstances” are

• disability,
• chronic or prolonged illness,
• raising children,
• caring for relatives,
• extensive employment required to finance studies
• refugee background

In these or comparable cases, disadvantages will be compensated for when assessing the application.

Depending on scholarship programme, additional selection criteria may be relevant, e.g. language skills. To find out what applies to your programme, read the Call for Applications in the Scholarship database (www.funding-guide.de).