Today (4 December) Minister of State Cornelia Pieper and DAAD Secretary General Christian Bode welcomed 170 DAAD scholarship recipients to the Federal Foreign Office. The students are graduates of German schools abroad who are now beginning their studies at universities in Germany.

Minister of State Pieper greeted the young students by declaring, “You are the future of your countries!” An Abitur (higher education entrance qualification) from a German school abroad serves as excellent preparation for successful university studies in Germany, Minister of State Pieper continued. Germany was happy to invite the “best minds from around the world” to study at German universities because “they enrich Germany as a study location”, she explained. According to Pieper, it is necessary to make German universities more international.

The Minister of State also encouraged the students to maintain contact with Germany even after they return to their native countries.

“I hope that during your studies you will learn that Germany is a source of ideas and partners, even friends with whom we can work to master challenges!”

Since 2001 the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has granted full scholarships, from Federal Foreign Office funds, to the best graduates from the German schools and language institutes which take part in the “Schools: Partners for the Future” (PASCH) Initiative. Under the auspices of the Research and Academic Relations Initiative 2009, the number of scholarships awarded each year was raised to almost 200.
The Schools: Partners for the Future (PASCH) Initiative was launched in 2008. It aims to create a worldwide network of German-language partner schools. The Federal Foreign Office is responsible for coordinating PASCH, which is being implemented in cooperation with the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA), the Goethe-Institut (GI), the Educational Exchange Service of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (PAD) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).