Text: Gunda Achterhold
Keeping in touch
“Germany and Mexico are moving closer together”
This year, the DAAD Regional Office in Mexico City is celebrating its 25th anniversary. For a quarter of a century, its activities have been bringing universities and researchers together.
Issue 2 | 2025
The celebrations of Mexico’s Independence Day traditionally begin with a battle cry, the famous “Grito de Dolores”. Mexico is renowned for its spirited festivities and parties, many of which have religious, cultural or historical roots. The national holiday on 16 September really stands out, however. In every village, all across the country, this major patriotic event is celebrated to commemorate Mexico’s liberation from Spanish colonial rule. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who was elected president in 2024, recently took to the balcony of the National Palace in Mexico City to reaffirm the country’s independence in front of a huge crowd of jubilant onlookers – the first woman to lead this ceremony in the history of Mexico.
Long before the event itself, the city was already a sea of green, white and red, with countless flags fluttering in the breeze. “The mood was upbeat and relaxed during this period,” recalls Christoph Hansert. He has headed the DAAD Regional Office Mexico City, which is also responsible for the Central America and Caribbean regions, since November 2024. He watched the big parade on the city’s grand Avenida Paseo de la Reforma and was especially impressed by the “unabashed patriotism” that was evident throughout the country on this day. “To this extent, Mexico is of course also rejecting the pressure that is currently being exerted upon it externally,” says Hansert. “The country is celebrating its independence from Spain and presenting itself at the same time as a sovereign state that is capable of taking its own decisions.”
The change of government in the US is also evident in German-Mexican academic cooperation. “Both countries want to move closer together,” Hansert notes. “Here in Mexico, Germany is seen as the core country in Europe.” Many people expect Claudia Sheinbaum, who has a PhD in environmental science, to tackle the challenges facing the country in a rational and facts-based manner. In her inauguration speech, she stressed that more importance should be attached to science in order to support innovation. Unlike her predecessor, President Sheinbaum wants the country to open itself up more to international science and research so as to be able to secure its technological sovereignty in the long term. Her first step in this direction was to establish a research and technology ministry, the Secretaría de Ciencia, Humanidades, Tecnología e Innovación (SECIHTI). The DAAD has already had several discussions about a possible cooperation programme with the newly founded ministry. A new co-funded German-Mexican programme offering 20 scholarships a year was already launched at the start of the year with the Research and Technology Council of the state of Mexico, the largest of the country’s 32 federal states.
100 years of the DAAD and 25 years of the DAAD Regional Office Mexico City: two high-level events were held in November 2025 to celebrate both these landmarks with alumnae, alumni and representatives of German and Mexican universities and academic institutions. Founded in 2000, the Regional Office cooperates closely with the six DAAD lecturers in the country, who are based in the Mexican capital, Monterrey, Guadalajara and as of recently also in San Luis Potosí. In addition, there is a Humboldt professorship at the Colegio de México, two long-term lectureships at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the Universidad de Guadalajara, and several language assistant posts.
“Our job is to highlight interesting potential for cooperation.”
Christoph Hansert, Director of the DAAD Regional Office Mexico City
“Mexico is a huge country,” emphasises Hansert. “On a map of Europe, Mexico would stretch all the way from Norway to Sicily.” The university landscape is correspondingly diverse. While some three million people in Germany study at the country’s 420 or so universities, there are five million students at Mexico’s 5,500 universities. These include top-class universities with international ties and strong research, private universities, universities that are largely autonomous and others that are heavily regulated by Mexico’s Ministry of Education. The team at the DAAD Regional Office compiles important information about the local higher education system and about partners who would potentially be a good fit for German institutions such as its universities of applied sciences, technical universities or conventional universities. “One of our goals for the future is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of this diversity,” explains Regional Office Director Christoph Hansert. “Our job is to provide nuanced information about the higher education systems in the countries in which we operate and to highlight interesting potential for cooperation.”
In this context, Hansert benefits from his many years of experience in international higher education cooperation and management, especially in the Global South. Before moving to Mexico, he headed the DAAD Division Development Cooperation and Transregional Programmes in Bonn. As Director of the Regional Office Mexico City, he has set himself the task of strengthening knowledge formats and gradually developing topic-specific suport services. He explains that recycling for instance is becoming increasingly relevant in an emerging economy such as Mexico, where consumption is growing all the time and raw materials – such as for car batteries – are scarce. Germany is seen as one of the international leaders in the circular economy, he adds.
He also envisages areas of potential overlapping interest for both countries in pharmacy and in software development for the automotive industry. Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, is seen as a kind of Latin American Silicon Valley. “Many German subsidiaries are desperately looking for specialists in this area,” notes Hansert, explaining that skilled labour is in short supply not only in Germany but also in those German companies with branches in the north of Mexico in particular. By contrast, he believes there is potential for recruiting skilled professionals from the south of the country to Germany, though he stresses that the quality of their education and training is crucial. More cooperation is needed between universities in Mexico and Germany, not to mention employers to train the specialists of the future, says Hansert. “In the 25 years of its existence, the DAAD Regional Office has demonstrated just how capable it is of driving exchange and change – we will therefore do everything we can to support such cooperation.” —