“In recent weeks, we have seen that anti-Semitic and racist statements and attacks do not stop at universities. If students have to fear for their safety at universities because of their religion or nationality, this is completely unacceptable and incompatible with our values. The large and ongoing demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of citizens in recent days and weeks also show that our society wants to defend the values of our free and democratic basic order at all costs,” said DAAD President Prof Dr Joybrato Mukherjee in Bonn.

“As the German Academic Exchange Service, we stand for the peaceful, tolerant and cosmopolitan exchange of students and academics. We therefore emphatically support the recent statements by the German Rectors’ Conference and the Alliance of Science Organisations against the current right-wing extremist activities, which have become the subject of widespread reporting, and are following up our words with action. By increasing the STIBET budget, we as a funding organisation want to send a clear signal against racism and anti-Semitism and for tolerance and diversity,” says Mukherjee.

STIBET programme

The STIBET programme, which is funded by the Federal Foreign Office, aims to improve the support and integration of international students and doctoral candidates. It provides universities with various support services, such as counselling, events and support services, including for refugee Ukrainian students and academics. Universities can also award scholarships to international students in the programme in order to expand international partnerships as part of the universities’ internationalisation strategy. In addition, the universities receive funding under STIBET to honour outstanding and committed international students or doctoral candidates with the “DAAD Prize”.

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