New Name for KAAD: “Katholischer Akademischer Austauschdienst”

The new designation expresses more clearly what has shaped the work of the organisation for many decades: international academic exchange between students, researchers and alumni from different regions of the world. While the English name “Catholic Academic Exchange Service” has long reflected this dimension, the German title now places the idea of exchange more explicitly at the centre.

At the centre stands an idea that can be understood both academically and theologically: the exchange of gifts. People bring their experiences, scholarly perspectives and cultural backgrounds from different social contexts and place them within a shared framework of learning, research and encounter. In this understanding, knowledge does not arise in isolation but in dialogue.

The new name consciously takes up this idea. It makes visible that international students and scholars not only receive support, but themselves contribute knowledge, perspectives and experiences to the common academic exchange.

This perspective is already present in the beginnings of KAAD. When Dr Maria Alberta Lücker founded the KAAD “action group” within the Central Committee of German Catholics in 1955, the aim was not only to accompany international students in Germany organisationally, but to integrate them into a community of learning and dialogue. From these initiatives the independent association KAAD emerged in 1958.

The new German name – Katholischer Akademischer Austauschdienst – takes up this original concern and places the exchange of knowledge, experiences and perspectives more clearly at the centre.