80 per cent of people worldwide live in countries with restricted academic freedom. According to the latest Academic Freedom Index (AFI), the situation has deteriorated significantly in many countries over the past ten years. This makes support programmes and initiatives for endangered researchers and students all the more important, says DAAD President Professor Joybrato Mukherjee: ‘Academic freedom and the free development of personality are indispensable prerequisites for a free and democratic society.’ 

For 25 years, the international network Scholars at Risk (SAR) has been working to support threatened and persecuted academics. More than 400 universities, research institutions and other academic organisations, including the DAAD, collaborate within the network. Every year, SAR advises hundreds of researchers and paves the way for them to obtain scholarships or temporary positions at universities and colleges by providing independent risk assessments. 

Universities attract outstanding international talent

The EU project SAFE – Supporting at risk researchers with fellowships in Europe, launched in September 2024, takes a similar approach. It enables European universities to hire at-risk researchers on a temporary basis for up to two years and provides funding of twelve million euros for this purpose. The programme is being implemented by a consortium of European partner organisations coordinated by the DAAD. Each university was able to nominate one person for a fellowship as part of the pilot call for applications. ‘This principle has proven very successful so far,’ says SAFE project manager Stefanie Kottowski from the DAAD: ‘At-risk researchers can work in safety at a European university that is well suited to their respective field of expertise, and the universities gain outstanding international talent.’ For cases where there are no contacts between at-risk researchers and European universities, the SAFE team developed its own matching tool. A total of around 360 nominations were received. Fifty-six selected fellows were able to take up their positions, around a quarter of them at German universities.

The DAAD's Hilde Domin Programme, which is funded by the Federal Foreign Office, is aimed at students and doctoral candidates who are denied the right to education in their countries of origin. Thanks to the scholarships, a total of 285 recipients have been able to continue or complete their studies or dissertations at a German university since the programme was launched in 2021. ‘The demand is still considerably high,’ says Nina Knops from the DAAD. The causes are manifold: from crises and conflicts that threaten the entire higher education system in some countries, to discrimination based on gender, religion or sexual orientation, to repression against students and doctoral candidates who are politically active. The largest groups among the Hilde Domin scholarship holders come from Afghanistan, Iran and Belarus – countries that rank at the bottom of the Academic Freedom Index.

Insights from practice

Prof Dr Susanne Fengler is a communications scientist at Dortmund Technical University and reports on her experiences with the SAFE programme at her university:

"I am the director of the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism at TU Dortmund University. The SAFE programme has enabled us to take in a persecuted colleague from a civil war-torn country in the Horn of Africa region, who is researching the situation of journalism in his country in the face of increased censorship. After his house was searched by the police at night, he had to leave the country with his family in a hurry. We had met some time ago at a conference, so he asked me for advice on what opportunities were available to him in Germany. I am very happy that our colleague can now live and conduct his research here in safety. Journalism and media in sub-Saharan Africa are among our main areas of research. The work of the SAFE Fellow is a great asset to us and creates fantastic synergies. Because he is involved in our institute's research projects, he can network with universities in Germany and Europe and thus work on his academic future. He recently signed a book contract with a renowned specialist publisher."

Mazar Mohamed from Sudan is a bachelor's student of human biology at the University of Marburg and a scholarshipholder of the Hilde Domin Programme:

"When war broke out in Sudan in 2023, I was in my fifth semester of medical studies at the National University of Sudan in Khartoum. Before the fighting started, we fled first to the Al-Jazirah region and later to eastern Sudan. But there was no safety anywhere; we were repeatedly threatened by militias. All universities were closed. My family then pooled their money so that I could leave for Uganda in March 2024. There I looked for study opportunities. Testimonials from Hilde Domin scholarship holders on the DAAD website gave me the courage to apply to German universities. I was nominated for a scholarship, received confirmation in August 2024 and am now studying my dream subject, human biology, at the University of Marburg. To help me prepare, the DAAD enabled me to take a six-month German course, which means I can communicate well in my studies and in everyday life. I really enjoyed the chemistry practical in the first semester – my first experience of laboratory work. I am particularly interested in epidemiology. During our time as refugees, we were constantly ill because malaria and other diseases spread rapidly in Sudan after the collapse of the health system. The scholarship has completely changed my life. It was important for me to meet other students at a DAAD meeting who had had similar experiences to me. It makes me feel like I'm not alone."
 

Miriam Hoffmeyer (5th March 2026)