at Foreign Universities in Central Eastern, Southeastern, Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Goals of the Programme

Taking the initiative “Go-East“, the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) is encouraging more and more students from Germany to complete  their academic studies in countries in Central-Eastern, South- Eastern, and Eastern Europe and CIS. The initiative of “Go-East“ includes the Programme "Go-East Summer- and Winter Schools”, which promotes the participation of German students in summer or winter schools in these countries. Doctoral candidates are not supported within this programme.

The students have the opportunity to become acquainted with the educational system of the host country and to consider the eventuality of attending further studies or research projects at the host university.

The universities in these regions offer advanced training courses in various subjects every year during the summer months or in Februrary/March.

With the help of the Programme “Go-East Summer- and Winter Schools” the DAAD contributes to the internationalization of foreign universities, as well as their integration into the European area of education.

The Programme will be financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Who can apply for the Programme?

Foreign universities in Central-Eastern, South-Eastern, Eastern Europe and CIS.

(Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Uzbekistan.)

What can be supported?

Summer or winter schools that have various professional, country-specific, and linguistic emphasis organized by the foreign universities.

Summer schools have a 12 -21 day duration period, and can take place from middle of July until the end of September. Winter schools have the same duration period, but take place in February/March.

What can the summer-/winter schools offer?

The foreign universities are free to prepare their own programmes. In general, the summer or winter schools have a combination of lectures, presentations, visits to companies, national language courses, a cultural program as well as excursions. It is recommended that the German students establish and maintain regular contact with professors and students of the foreign universities during the period of the summer or winter school.

Generally, the language of instruction should be German, English or both German / English. This should make it easier to integrate further international students into the summer or winter school.

For their participation, the students receive a participation certificate and/or ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) points.

How do you apply?

Foreign universities can send their application forms for the summer or winter school to DAAD. The funding decision will be made by an independent selection committee; with the consent of the committee the summer-/winter schools will be announced to the German students on the DAAD’s “Go-East” website (goeast.daad.de) as well as in the DAAD scholarship database.

Parallel to this, the DAAD will inform the German universities about the current tenders. The foreign universities must also set up their own website to advertise their summer or winter schools.

How are the summer-/winter schools financed?

The summer or winter schools chosen by the selection committee will not receive any direct financial contribution from the DAAD. However, they can charge a fee to the participants who receive a DAAD scholarship.

The German participants must pay their participation fee either in cash or transfer it directly to the foreign university; this is done by mutual arrangement between the two parties. The participation fee can be used for the reimbursement of organizational and operational costs of the summer-/winter schools (e.g.: fees, cultural programmes, board and lodging, rent, teaching materials, etc).

Application forms

The foreign universities applying for the promotion of their summer or winter schools are required to submit the following documents in one PDF file per e-mail to the DAAD:

• a DAAD application form (winter schools here, summer schools here)
• a concept of the summer or winter school (max. 2 pages)
• a preliminary/ final programme.

Important!

While making an inquiry, please indicate the name and the location of your summer or winter school project.

Submission deadline for applications

Submission deadline for Winter schools 2024: September 22th 2023.

Submission deadline for Summer schools 2024: November 10th 2023.

What are the selection criteria?

The main criteria for the selection process are:

• concept and programme of the summer or winter school project,
• topicality and relevance of the project.
• results of the DAAD evaluations of this year's summer or winter schools, if available, as well as the reports of the DAAD scholarship holders about their experience

The DAAD scholarships

The DAAD offers partial scholarships and they are composed of:

• travel expenses (rates differ by country)
• scholarship (residence expenses)
• a maximum amount of 650€ for reimbursement of participation expenses.

A reasonable personal contribution for expenses is expected from the scholarship holders.

How can the German students apply?

The interested student is required to apply both to the foreign university for admission to a summer or winter school, and to the DAAD for a scholarship acquirement at the same time.

At the end of the application period, the foreign university is due to send a ranking of applicants to the DAAD.

The foreign university decides on the application deadline and this will be also the deadline for the application for the DAAD scholarship.

An extension of the application deadline is possible only in certain circumstances and only with the approval from the DAAD.

Contact and further information

Please submit your application documents to:
Nadine Sternberg
n.sternberg@daad.de

Internet: goeast.daad.de

Facebook: DAAD Go East Sommerschulen

Foreign universities will be informed about the decision of the selection committee in the beginning/middle of October (winter schools) or in the middle/at the end of December (summer schools).