The ‘Programme to increase the Mobility of Students from German Universities’ (PROMOS) has been as successful model for over a decade. More than 110,000 students have benefited from stays abroad funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since formation of the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD). There are currently over 300 higher education institutions across Germany that participate in PROMOS each year.

‘International mobility and intercultural exchange are indispensable building blocks in establishing an academic career. It is therefore very gratifying that for more than ten years the PROMOS programme has – with the exception of the pandemic semester – assisted around 10,000 young people each year to benefit from an international stay’, according to DAAD President Professor Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee. This programme commenced in 2010 with the objective of increasing international mobility among students and doctoral candidates from German higher education institutions. It also supports participating higher education institutions with implementation of their internationalisation strategy and enables them to award scholarships for international stays of up to six months. PROMOS is accordingly popular among German higher education institutions; until now they have received around 130 million euros of BMBF funding via the DAAD.

The target countries especially in demand for study and internship stays in recent years have been the USA, Australia and China. Popular European destinations for a stay relating to the preparation of final theses were for instance the United Kingdom or Switzerland.

Celebrating 111,111 PROMOS beneficiaries and an online report 

The coronavirus pandemic resulted in the programme’s ten-year anniversary celebration being postponed until 2021: Carmen Draxler from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar was finally honoured as PROMOS beneficiary number 111,111 at the beginning of October this year. She had previously completed her international semester at Concordia University in Quebec, Canada. DAAD Vice President Dr. Muriel Helbig presented her with an e-bike as part of the celebrations. Appropriately to the honouring of PROMOS beneficiary number 111,111, the DAAD published an online report on the programme entitled ‘PROMOS is making a difference!’. It includes coverage of the international experiences and impressions enjoyed by Carmen Draxler and other students, and the report also contains videos, audio contributions, texts and images that give varied insights into background information on the PROMOS programme.