Objective
This scholarship programme is designed for students, graduates and doctoral candidates. It aims to help them improve their knowledge of the German language (general language) as well as German regional and cultural studies.
Who can apply?
- Applications are open to students and graduates as well as doctoral candidates in any subject area.
- Undergraduate students must have completed at least two academic years when the scholarship period starts.
- Students in the last year of a study programme are eligible to apply if they continue their studies in a postgraduate study programme shortly after completing their undergraduate degree. Please submit a letter of confirmation from your university as proof.
What can be funded?
- The programme funds attendance of language and regional studies courses that are offered by state or state-recognised German universities and by affiliated language schools.
- Click here to find out more about the course providers and their course programmes.
- The courses are taught exclusively in German.
Duration of the funding
- Up to 6 weeks
- The grants are not extendable.
- The courses start in January and end in February.
Value
- One-time scholarship payment of 2,151 euros; scholarship holders from the "Least Development Countries" receive a scholarship of EUR 2,326.
- Payment of a country-specific travel allowance
- Health, accident and personal liability insurance benefits
The above-mentioned scholarship benefits (including the travel allowance) are not transferred abroad.
The course fees and accommodation costs are usually directly deducted from the scholarship benefits by the language course provider, so that the scholarship holder may "only" receive the difference to the full amount from the course provider.
Selection
A qualified selection committee will review all applications.
The most important selection criteria are:
The most important selection criteria are:
- Previous academic achievements
- Convincing letter of motivation for choice of study programme and future academic project
Further information
- For more general information on language certificates, please visit the DAAD website at: https://www.daad.de/en/study-and-research-in-germany/plan-your-studies/the-german-language/.
- Answers to frequently asked questions regarding the University Winter Courses programme can be found here: FAQs (in German)
What requirements must be met?
- The grant holder must be at least 18 years old when starting the language course.
- Applicants must be registered at a university of one of the programme-related countries (except Germany) at the time of application as well as during the course.
- A scholarship within the program can only be awarded once.
Language skills
- Applicants must be able to follow lectures in German and participate in group work.
- Applicants must prove a German language level of at least B1.
- German language skills must be proven at the time of application.
- Language skills must be verified by onSET-Deutsch, TestDaF, Goethe Institut Zertifikat, DSD, DSH, telc Deutsch, ÖSD-Zertifikat or baccalaureate (for specialised language courses only).
- The language certificate cannot be older than 1 year at the time of application (this also applies to DSH).
Application deadline
August 15th of every year, 23:59 CEST (Central European Summer Time)
Application documents
Certificates, proof of credits, certifications and translations may be submitted in non-authenticated form. The DAAD Head Office in Bonn reserves the right to request authenticated copies of the submitted documents at any time during the application procedure.
Documents to be uploaded to the DAAD Portal
Documents to be uploaded to the DAAD Portal
- Online application form
- Full curriculum vitae in tabular form (in German)
- Letter of motivation (in German)
- For undergraduate students: Copy of school leaving certificate with grades (with German or English translation)
- For graduate students and doctoral candidates: Copy of the last university degree certificate (with German or English translation)
- Proof of credits for all university examinations (with final grades) incl. explanation of grading systems (with German or English) translation
- Language certificates (with German or English translation, if applicable)
- Other documents you think might be of relevance to your application (e.g. proof of placements, certificates of employment)
Please submit your application online through the DAAD Portal.
Please note
- In the application form, applicants are asked to specify three courses they wish to take. Applicants are requested to fill in all boxes and indicate three different course locations.
- The course preferences will considered by the DAAD in the final placement, if possible.
- Important: The capacities for each course are limited. Therefore, the DAAD reserves the right to assign applicants to a different course than one of the preferred ones.
- Once an application has been submitted, it is no longer possible to change your course preferences or change courses.
- Only complete applications that are submitted by the application deadline can be considered.
- Your application documents, including all attachments, samples, etc., become property of the DAAD without any claim to remuneration. They will not be returned. Applicants' data will be saved by the DAAD in accordance with the Federal Data Protection Act and the EU General Data Protection Regulation, as far as they are required for processing the application.
Information and advisory centres
General information on the application via DAAD portal
Applications for this scholarship programme are possible in the period 01.07. until the stated application deadline.
You can access the DAAD portal by clicking "Application portal" at the end of the page. Here you will find an online application form in which you can enter your application data.
This is what you have to do:
1. Register in the DAAD portal (Read notes about registering in the portal >>)
2. Applying online in the DAAD portal (Read notes on applying in the portal >>)
Please note:
If you have any technical questions or problems your local information and advice centres could not help you with, please do not hesitate to contact portal@daad.de via e-mail.
Please consider possible processing times of your request when you are planning your application.
You can access the DAAD portal by clicking "Application portal" at the end of the page. Here you will find an online application form in which you can enter your application data.
This is what you have to do:
1. Register in the DAAD portal (Read notes about registering in the portal >>)
2. Applying online in the DAAD portal (Read notes on applying in the portal >>)
- Download and complete the online application form
- Prepare application documents
- If necessary, translate documents (unless they are already in German or English).
- Scan paper documents (except references) and save in PDF format. Please note that you can only upload PDF files to the portal.
- Upload the completed application form and the other application documents to the portal in PDF format. Translations, if applicable, should be uploaded together with the PDF-document issued in the original language.
- Submit the uploaded application documents online.
Please note:
If you have any technical questions or problems your local information and advice centres could not help you with, please do not hesitate to contact portal@daad.de via e-mail.
Please consider possible processing times of your request when you are planning your application.
