A substantial proportion of the DAAD’s work is concerned with providing guidance, counselling and advisory services, especially for scholarship holders, whereby the cost to the DAAD in terms of time and workload varies considerably, depending on the scholarship holder’s nationality and the specific academic context. Visits by the relevant desk officers, even as early as during a student’s language courses in Germany, introductory events held at universities throughout Germany, and DAAD-organised scholarship holder meetings all belong to the standard range of support services.

In addition, the DAAD awards funds to German universities to promote their advisory, support and guidance-counselling work at local level, especially introductory and orientation meetings, excursions and assistance for students looking for a place to live.

Besides these measures, the DAAD also contributes to professionalising the university guidance-counsellors, for example, through the Annual Conference on Foreign Students in Germany and the Meeting of the Heads of the International Offices. In addition, the DAAD awards a prize given by the Federal Foreign Minister for outstanding guidance-counselling initiatives in higher education. And finally, every year sees some of the foreign students enrolled at German higher education institutions receive the "DAAD Prize for Foreign Students" for their excellent academic achievements and commitment to social issues. This award, funded by the Federal Foreign Office, has been presented by Germany’s universities for eight years now on behalf of the DAAD and aims to demonstrate clearly the academic and social enrichment which arises from highly-qualified and highlymotivated foreigners completing study stays in Germany.

Contacts with former scholarship holders
The DAAD uses specific programmes and initiatives in its endeavours to keep in touch with former DAAD scholarship holders (alumni). As a result, the worldwide network of current and former, foreign and German scholarship holders continues to grow. The goals of this work differ depending on the origin of alumni. In the case of German alumni, the prime focus is on using their regional experience and intercultural competence for the work of the DAAD – for example, in guiding, counselling and supervising foreign scholarship holders in Germany. German DAAD alumni often find themselves in senior positions in higher education and research, business and industry, politics and the media, and not least, as members of the Selection Committees.

While foreign DAAD alumni also support the programme work by providing interested students, applicants and scholarship holders with information, advice and guidance, by speaking at events or also as economic and political sponsors. Under certain circumstances, foreign alumni may be reinvited to come and complete research stays of several months at German universities and research institutes ("Reinvitation programme") or receive literature and equipment donations for their scientific research work in the home country.

A dedicated website ("Alumni Forum") is available to all alumni and scholarship holders. In addition, the DAAD publishes two follow-up contact magazines: "DAAD-Letter – Hochschule und Ausland" focuses on the information needs of foreign alumni, while "PostSkript" is intended for German DAAD alumni. In the future, there will be just one magazine for German and foreign alumni called "DAAD-Letter-Hochschule und Ausland für deutsche und ausländische DAAD Alumni".

The DAAD also accompanies and supports the creation of regional or subjectspecific Alumni Clubs abroad and in Germany. The 125 or so alumni clubs around the world were able to welcome in new "members" from Moldova, Senegal, the Russian Federation and Argentina in 2003. The DAAD does not provide these clubs with institutional support, although it does provide project-related funding, above all, for events involving German partners.

German alumni have had the "Association of Alumni and Friends of the DAAD", known in German as the "Vereinigung Ehemaliger und Freunde des DAAD e.V.", or, in short, "Freundeskreis", since 1981, which is organisationally closely affiliated to the DAAD. With its 1,200 and more members, the "Friends of the DAAD" primarily endeavour to support foreign DAAD scholarship holders in their university towns in Germany.

DAAD-supported, subject-related "Alumni Seminars" abroad form an additional element in the DAAD’s worldwide networking activities. 2003 saw major events of this kind organised by the DAAD in Brazil, Chile, Genshagen near Berlin, Guatemala, Hungary, Japan and Poland. Besides these, some smaller seminars were also supported, generally initiated by alumni clubs or Lektors, including in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Laos, Lithuania, the Netherlands and the Russian Federation.