Development co-operation

Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance to Developing Countries

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Important:

The application requirements and conditions for support for this programme are currently being updated.

The application deadline will likely change to the third quarter of 2012.

We expect the most recent information concerning these updates to be publicised on this website some time during the second quarter of 2012.

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Anyone considering applying should ensure the fulfilment of certain framework conditions listed on the following pages in order to satisfy the minimum standards of the updated application requirements and conditions for support.

With its Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance to Developing Countries, the DAAD has created an educational programme that has set several milestones on the way to attaining the Millennium Development Goals. This is because well-trained local professionals who are networked with international partners play an important role. They are the best guarantee for a better future with less poverty, more education, and good health for all.

If German universities would like to offer international postgraduate degree courses with a strong reference to topics related to developing countries, they can apply for admission into the programme “Postgraduate Courses for Professionals with Relevance to Developing Countries”.

For these courses, the DAAD sponsors selected persons from Developing Countries (according to the DAC list of the OECD (*.pdf)) and by awarding them scholarships enables them to acquire an internationally competitive degree in a postgraduate course with close ties to practical experience. 

Programme Goal

The main goal of the postgraduate programmes is promoting the higher qualification of young, employed professionals in fields related to development policy. This next generation elite are offered the opportunity to acquire an internationally recognized university degree in Germany. When these scholarship holders return to their home countries, ideally back to the same organizations or government agencies, the knowledge that they acquired during the postgraduate course should put them in the position to contribute toward the further development of their countries. The university degree acquired in Germany thereby fills the formal requirement allowing programme participants to move into decision-making positions after the completion of their studies.

Target Group

Young professionals (generally no more than 36 years old) with:

• a first academic degree and
  
• several years of work experience in a governmental ministry, central agency or subordinate authority, in a chamber of commerce and industry, an enterprise or business, or as the employee of an NGO or development help project.

are the primary, desired clientele of this programme.

In view of the goal outlined above, this funding instrument is expressly NOT aimed at young academics in teaching and research!

The three Doctoral Programmes form an exception to this rule and are specially designed for young university instructors and academics:  

• Development Studies - ZEF / Postgraduate Programme (University of Bonn)
  
• Agricultural Economics and Related Sciences (University Giessen / University of Hohenheim)
  
• Mathematics in Industry and Commerce - MIC (University of Kaiserslautern)

• Africa Sub-Sahara
• Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania
• Central and Eastern Europe
• Latin America
• North America
• Northern Africa and the Middle East
• Western Europe