A popular study destination

For many years Germany has been considered the most popular non-English-speaking country for international students. Around one in ten of Germany’s approximately three million students come from abroad. Unlike many other countries, students pay no or only very limited fees to study at public higher education institutions in Germany (with the exception of certain states such as Baden-Wurttemberg Baden-Wurttemberg People in Baden-Wurttemberg are not keen to talk in superlatives, even though the state continually sets records. The region around Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Tübingen is one of those in the EU where the most research is conducted. Baden-Wurttemberg is the German leader for patent registrations in… Read more › ). Germany’s higher education and research institutions are also very attractive for international staff. For ex­ample, around 29% of staff at the four major non-university research institutes come from abroad.

Networking with international partners is also very important to German higher education institutions, which are continually expanding their partnerships around the world. Germany’s support for its higher education institutions includes the German Academic Exchange Service ( DAAD DAAD The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is an organization run jointly by the German institutes of higher education. Its purpose is to promote relations between higher education institutes in Germany and abroad, especially through exchange schemes between students and academics. As a rule its… Read more › ), and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation was founded in 1860 and today promotes academic collaboration between excellent foreign and German researchers. Every year it enables 2,000 international researchers to spend time working in Germany and maintains a worldwide network of some 30,000 Humboldtians… Read more › , which are funded by the Federal Foreign Office. Scholarship programmes are an essential element of Germany's foreign academic and higher education policy. These provide assistance to foreign students, academics and researchers for stays in Germany. Germany also funds higher education partnerships around the world. Over 37,000 agreements exist between higher education institutions in Germany and partners in over 150 countries.