DAAD University Summer Courses in Germany 2027 (Funded German Language Courses)

Last Verified: 5 September 2026

Do you already need to speak German to apply for this one? Yes, and that single condition removes most of the people who click on it. The DAAD University Summer Courses scholarship pays for a four week German language course inside Germany, but you have to prove your German with a recognised certificate on the day you apply. There is no beginner route into this programme, and no way to promise the language later.

The whole thing in three short paragraphs

The DAAD, which is the German Academic Exchange Service, funds international students and graduates to spend four weeks on a German language or specialist language course at a German university. The courses run somewhere between June and September, they are taught only in German, and you must physically be there. The point of the programme is to push your German further and to give you a real stretch of time inside German academic life before you commit to studying or researching there.

On money, be clear eyed. This is a covered course rather than a salary. The DAAD pays your course fee, the course provider gives you a room for the four weeks, you receive a one time allowance of 475 EUR, you get a travel allowance that depends on which country you are coming from, and you are insured for health, accident and personal liability while you are there. That is generous for a short summer programme. It is not a stipend you will live on for months, and nobody should read it that way.

Trying costs you time and a certificate. The window opens on 1 September and closes on 30 October at 23:59 Central European Time. You will need a German language certificate that is still inside its validity window, a curriculum vitae written in German, a motivation letter written in German, and your transcripts from the last two years with a translation. If those pieces exist already, the application is a weekend of careful work. If your certificate has expired, the certificate is the real deadline, not the DAAD one.

The certificate has to be in your hand on the day you apply

The language rule is the wall most applicants hit, so treat it as the first thing to check rather than the last. The DAAD asks that you can follow a lecture in German and take part in group work, and it asks you to prove that at the moment of application. A promise to sit a test in December does nothing for an application submitted in October.

The certificates the programme accepts are:

• onSET Deutsch
• TestDaF
• Goethe Institut Zertifikat
• DSD
• DSH
• telc Deutsch
• ÖSD Zertifikat

For the subject specific language courses, a German Abitur is also accepted as proof.

There is a second condition that catches people who do hold a certificate. Your certificate cannot be older than one year at the time you apply, and that one year limit applies to the DSH as well. There is one extension: if your result is B2 or TDN3 or above in every single section of the exam, the certificate may be up to two years old. Note the wording carefully, because it says every part. A profile that reaches B2 in reading and listening but sits below it in writing does not qualify for the longer window.

The practical consequence matters more than anything else on your planning list. If your certificate expires in, say, June, and you were counting on applying in October, you are not applying this cycle unless you retest. Test dates for TestDaF and the Goethe exams fill up, results take weeks, and October is not far from September. Booking a test seat is often the single most urgent action a reader of this article can take today.

Where you are enrolled decides whether you are eligible at all

This programme is built for students who are based outside Germany and want a taste of German academic life. That intention shows up as a hard rule about enrolment. You must be enrolled at a university in one of the countries the programme covers, and that university must not be in Germany. You have to hold that enrolment both when you apply and for the whole scholarship period, so graduating out of your degree midway through the process creates a problem you should raise with the DAAD before you submit anything.

There is a stricter exclusion sitting behind it. You cannot apply if you are also enrolled at a German university, and the rule stretches further than most people expect, because it covers being enrolled at a German university at a different time too. Double degree and joint degree arrangements with a German partner are named on the official page as an example of what disqualifies you. If your home programme sends you to a German campus for a semester and registers you there, you are outside this programme even though you are studying abroad in every ordinary sense of the phrase.

One more caution on countries. The official announcement talks about the programme related countries without printing a list of them on the page itself. So if you are unsure whether your country is inside the programme, do not assume from the fact that the page is written in English. Ask the DAAD office or the information and advice centre that covers your region before you spend a week assembling documents.

Two academic years, age 18, and one lifetime chance

Beyond the language and the enrolment, there is a short set of conditions about where you are in your studies and how many times you get to do this.

1. The programme is open to students and graduates in every subject area, which is unusually wide.
2. If you are an undergraduate, you must have completed at least two academic years of university study by the time the funding period begins. Note that the test is at the start of funding, not at the moment you apply.
3. If you are in your final year of higher education when you apply, you are only eligible when you intend to move straight into postgraduate study afterwards.
4. You must be at least 18 years old when the language course starts.
5. Funding from this programme can be claimed once in your life. There is no second attempt after a successful one.

That third point comes with a document requirement people miss. A final year applicant should attach a certificate from their university confirming the intention to go on to a postgraduate programme such as a masters. If your university will not issue such a letter, the official rule allows you to state that intention clearly in your application documents instead, and the motivation letter is the natural place to do it. Do not leave it implied. A committee reading fast will not infer your plans from your grades.

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Three courses, one submission, and no changes afterwards

The application form asks you to name three courses you would like to take, and it asks you to pick three different course locations. The full catalogue of courses, with their dates, language levels and focus areas, sits in a course list that the DAAD publishes as a spreadsheet with a PDF version alongside it. Read it properly rather than skimming, because the courses differ in level and in theme, and a general language course and a specialist language course are quite different experiences.

Two things about this process deserve emphasis. First, your preferences are exactly that. Places on each course are limited, and the DAAD says openly that it may place you on a course you did not list. Second, once your application is in, you cannot change your preferences or swap courses. So the ranking you submit in October is the ranking you live with.

Practically, that means choosing your three with a little strategy rather than picking the three prettiest cities. Consider whether the level suits your actual German rather than your aspirational German, whether the specialist focus connects to your degree, and whether you would happily accept the third choice if it came through. And since you might be placed elsewhere entirely, avoid building the summer around one particular town.

The courses themselves are demanding in a good way. Four weeks, up to five days a week, at least 25 teaching hours every week, delivered entirely in German. Attendance in person is mandatory and there is no remote option, so plan for a visa, a flight and four weeks with no other commitments.

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The document list, and the two items that take weeks rather than days

Assemble the following before you open the form:

• The online application form, completed in the DAAD portal
• A complete curriculum vitae in tabular form, written in German
• A letter of motivation, written in German
• Transcripts of every university examination from the last two consecutive years, with individual grades, in the original plus a German or English translation
• If you have studied for less than two years and therefore have no such transcript, proof of your results from the current period of study plus your school leaving certificate with individual grades, original and translation
• For graduate applicants such as masters holders, your most recent degree certificate showing final grades, original and translation
• Language certificates, translated if needed
• Anything else that strengthens your case in a concrete way, such as internship proof or employment certificates, translated where necessary

Everything goes into the portal as PDF, and only PDF. Scan paper documents early rather than the night before, and upload each translation together with the original language version so the reviewer sees the pair.

The two items that take longest are almost always the translations and the tabular German curriculum vitae. Translations depend on somebody else’s calendar. And a tabular CV in German is a specific genre, not your English resume run through a translation tool. Give yourself a week for both, and ask a German speaking teacher or friend to read the CV and motivation letter once before you upload them.

Incomplete applications are not considered, and the responsibility for completeness sits with you. The portal closes at midnight Central European Time on the last day, and the DAAD itself advises against submitting on the final date because technical problems have a habit of appearing exactly then.

What the money actually covers, and where it stops

Here is the funding in plain terms, because summer programme funding is frequently oversold on scholarship sites.

The scholarship covers the full cost of the language course, so the tuition side is fully paid. Accommodation for the four weeks is provided by the course provider, in a single room, which in practice means a student dormitory, a shared apartment or a room in a private household. You receive a one time allowance of 475 EUR. You also receive a travel allowance whose value depends on your country of origin, published separately by the DAAD. Health, accident and personal liability insurance benefits are included for the period.

Two details matter more than the headline. The one time allowance and the travel allowance are not transferred to your bank account abroad. The DAAD sends the funds to your course provider, and the provider hands you the money in cash once you are on site. So you will need to reach Germany with your own money already in your pocket, and you should plan for the flight, the visa fee and your first days to be funded by you before any allowance appears.

The second detail is what the 475 EUR is for. Across four weeks that works out at a modest weekly amount once you are covering food, local transport and anything you want to do at the weekend. Your course fee and your bed are handled, so this is a very good deal for a four week programme, but describe it to yourself accurately: it is a covered course with a small allowance, not a fully funded scholarship in the sense of a monthly living stipend.

How the committee actually decides

Applications go to a selection committee, and the official announcement names two criteria: your previous academic achievements, and a convincing letter of motivation explaining your choice of study programme and your future academic plans.

Read that second criterion closely, because it is not asking why you love Germany. It asks you to connect the course to your studies and to what you intend to do next academically. A motivation letter that describes a warm feeling about German culture is competing against letters that explain precisely why a specialist language course in engineering German serves a masters application that begins next autumn. The committee is looking for a line running from your current degree, through these four weeks, into something specific afterwards.

Your academic record is the other half, and you cannot change it in October. What you can change is how legible it is. Grades from many national systems mean nothing to a reader in Bonn without context, so if your transcript uses an unusual scale, include the scale explanation your university provides. Make the reader’s job easy and your record will read as strong rather than as unclear.

Since the letter must be written in German, it also functions as a second language sample. That is a fair reason to draft it early, read it aloud, and cut every sentence you are not confident is correct. A short, clean, well argued letter beats a long one carrying grammar you borrowed from a translator.

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Dates for this cycle

• Applications open: 1 September each year
• Applications close: 30 October each year, 23:59 Central European Time
• Course length: four weeks, at least 25 teaching hours per week
• Course period: between June and September of the following year
• Extensions: none, the grants cannot be extended

The application portal link the DAAD publishes for this programme is daad.de/go/en/stipa50035295, and you reach the application form through the portal button at the foot of that page. Register in the portal first, since registration and application are two separate steps and the first one is easy to leave until too late.

Questions applicants ask after reading the official page

Do my documents have to be notarised or officially certified?

No, not at the application stage. The DAAD accepts uncertified copies when you apply, which is a real saving in time and money. It does reserve the right to ask you for certified copies later, so do not destroy or lose the originals, and if you are shortlisted, expect that request to arrive with a short turnaround.

Is there a minimum German level, or does any certificate work?

The official announcement does not print a single minimum level such as B1 or B2 as a blanket entry bar. What it does say is that you must be able to follow lectures in German and take part in group work, and the individual courses in the course list each state the language level they are pitched at. So the honest answer is that the level you need depends on the course you choose, and the course list is where you check it. Your certificate has to satisfy the course, not just exist.

The portal froze or refused my upload. Who do I contact?

The DAAD runs a technical hotline for portal problems. You can email portal@daad.de, or call +49 (0) 228 882 8888 on weekdays between 9 and 12 and again between 14 and 16, Central European Time. Build the processing time into your plan rather than calling on 30 October, which is precisely when everybody else is calling.

The official FAQ link mentions winter courses. Is that the same programme?

The contact section of this announcement points to a set of frequently asked questions labelled for the University Winter Courses programme, while the overview page points to summer course questions. The DAAD runs both, so the pages sit close together and the links can be confusing. Treat the announcement page itself as the authority for this scholarship, and if something in a linked FAQ contradicts it, ask the DAAD directly rather than guessing which page is current.

Can I hold this alongside another scholarship?

The published announcement does not address whether another award can run at the same time, and it would be wrong to guess for you. If you already hold funding from another body for the same summer, write to the DAAD or your local DAAD information centre and ask before you submit, and keep their answer in writing.

Does applying cost anything?

There is no application fee named anywhere in the official announcement. The costs you will actually meet are ordinary ones: translating documents, sitting a language exam if yours has expired, and later a visa fee and a flight. Nobody needs to be paid to submit this application on your behalf. If an agent offers to secure you a DAAD place for a fee, walk away, because the application is a portal form you fill in yourself and no third party has influence over a selection committee.

Start with the calendar, not the essay

The instinct is to open a blank document and start writing the motivation letter. Do the opposite this week. Check the expiry date on your German certificate first, and if it falls outside the one year window, or outside two years with B2 in every section, book a test seat today because that decision closes fastest. Then open the course list and shortlist three courses in three different cities. The letter can be written in the second week of October. A certificate cannot.