Deutscher Bildungs Server

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025. It operates as a joint institution of German universities and student bodies, aiming to promote international relations, exchange, and mobility. Since its founding in 1925, the DAAD has supported approximately three million students and researchers from Germany, Europe, and other parts of the world.

In addition to awarding scholarships, the DAAD is also engaged in the following areas: promoting the internationalisation of German universities and research, providing strategic advice to universities regarding internationalisation and international higher education marketing, strengthening German studies, the German language, and studies on Germany abroad, as well as supporting countries in the Global South in establishing higher education institutions.

As an organisation that fosters academic exchange, the DAAD emphasises the importance of cross-border academic cooperation in its anniversary year, particularly during times of geopolitical crises and upheavals.

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump already announced boldly that he wanted to close the Department of Education as soon as he was elected president. While "officially closing the doors of the Education Department may prove difficult", as the National Education Association (NEA) states, "dismantling its key functions and stripping its funds is a very real and present danger" (NEA Today, February 4, 2025). The danger mentioned by NEA on 4 February has now become a little more concrete on 20 March, when Trump signed a decree that is actually intended to strip the Ministry of Education of many of its competences. It should be remembered, however, that many Republicans have wanted to abolish the Department of Education since its founding in 1979/80, most notably former President Ronald Reagan (1981-89) (see a BBC article on this from March 21, 2025).

Read the following articles compiled by Education Worldwide to find out what Donald Trump and the Republicans are concerned about with the central US Department of Education, which services the department should now shut down or transfer to the states, and what consequences this will have for pupils, students, teachers, and parents:

• Trump signs executive order in first step to shut down Department of Education (BBC 20.03.25)
• What’s next for the Department of Education after Trump begins effort to eliminate it (PBS 20.03.25)
• How Dismantling the Department of Education Would Harm Students (NEA Today 04.02.25, updated 20.03.25)

When even the oldest democracy in the world is threatened by authoritarian tendencies, it is time to reflect on democracy and civic education.

The new dossier published by Education Worldwide therefore offers, on the one hand, characteristics and definitions of democracy from an international perspective in graphics, statistics, reports or international guidelines. On the other hand, networks and projects are presented that deal with democratic or political education worldwide. Teaching materials, guidelines and other instruments for civic education are also presented, especially for teachers and learners. The whole thing is rounded off by freely accessible research literature as well as international conferences and other events on the subject of democracy and democratic education.

The dossier is part of the German Education Server's action week "Citizenship and Democracy - let's do it together" from March 17th to 21st, 2025.

USA, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands .... – in many countries around the world, right-wing, authoritarian governments are coming to power or or parties with this mindset are increasingly gaining votes in elections.

What can we expect from the education policies of such governments and parties? What plans do they have for education in their countries? How does education change under right-wing and authoritarian governments?

Education Worldwide has compiled academic and non-academic texts and articles that provide a picture of the influence that right-wing and authoritarian tendencies could have, or in some cases already have, on education.

On behalf of the BMBF, the survey linked below is intended to provide an initial impression of the willingness of researchers from the USA to move to Germany [survey only in German].

The survey was created against the background that "the planned austerity measures of the new US government ... are also expected to affect universities and research institutions. In addition, it is to be expected that the government's substantive guidelines, including those relating to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), will have an impact on the scientific landscape. In view of these developments, parts of the US scientific community seem uncertain. In addition to the hope that many decisions of the US government can be stopped or mitigated by the courts, some researchers are said to be considering moving to European institutions to continue their work there."

You can find more information in the introductory text of the survey [only in German] or at Euraxess that is conducting the survey.

The European Network for Educational Information, Eurydice, is turning 45 this year! To mark the occasion, the current Eurydice newsletter is dedicated to the history of the network, as well as to projects that were completed to date, events that were organised, reports that were published and more.

Eurydice was founded in 1980 by the European Commission and is still funded by it today. The network consists of a coordinating European unit and a number of national units that contribute educational information and education news from their respective countries. Eurydice offers, among other things, extensive information on the national education systems of the countries of the European Union (EU) plus the countries that participate in the EU's Erasmus+ programme - by now this means educational information on 40 countries.

"How to empower learners for a democratic future? How to equip all learners with the necessary skills, values, attitudes and knowledge to navigate effectively in the digital environment?" Answers to these questions are to be found in projects and events surrounding the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025.  The theme was decided upon during the 26th session of the Council of Europe Standing Conference of Ministers of Education.

On 23 and 24 January 2025, the Council of Europe is organising the launch conference for the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025. The conference will be streamed live. It aims to "raise awareness of the value of digital citizenship education and highlight its key role in helping build inclusive and democratic societies."

Education Worldwide has relaunched its dossier on national education reports worldwide. The dossier offers an insight into education reports and education indicators from all 6 continents of the world. The focus is on education reports that were prepared in the respective country by the local authorities and institutes.

On 5 November 2024, the elections for the new American president will take place in the USA. Kamala Harris is running for the Democrats, Donald Trump for the Republicans. The elections are being watched with great interest around the world, including in schools and the education sector in general. The German Education Server has therefore prepared various dossiers and podcasts so that you, too, can find out more about the topic.

The web dossier of our school editorial team offers free teaching materials on the US presidential election. This is supplemented by a podcast with audio link recommendations on the election as a teaching topic. Furthermore, the Education Worldwide dossier deals with the topic of education in the US election campaign.

A new UNESCO report shows that the shortage of teachers is a problem not only in Germany, but worldwide. New data suggests that 44 million additional teachers will be needed to achieve universal primary and secondary education for all children by 2030. This is one of the demands of Goal 4 "Quality Education" of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. From an international perspective, the UNESCO report provides answers to questions such as: "Where is the teacher shortage greatest?", "Why is there so much teacher shortage worldwide?" or "How can the teacher shortage be solved?"

Not only in Germany, but worldwide, the publication of the chatbot "ChatGPT" has sparked a debate about artificial intelligence.

You can find out on how this debate is being conducted internationally in the education sector in our dossier.  We offer you freely accessible overview literature & systematic reviews, as well as reports, guidelines, frameworks, organisations & networks and projects. You will also find information on AI and education in various countries & regions as well as articles on AI tools in education.

We admit that the topic of our new dossier is not a very festive one given that Christmas is coming soon.  But it is a topic that has directly concerned us at the DBS and DIPF Institute over the past few weeks, as we ourselves have been victims of a cyber attack. Education Worldwide took the opportunity to research the topic of cybercrime in the field of education. It turned out that education is one of the most popular targets for hackers around the world. The sources we compiled for our webdossier will tell you the reasons for this, it will present you facts and statistics, and it will show you some examples of how different countries are dealing with this problem in the education sector.