The program “Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation” (Exceed) is composed of five higher education institutions in Germany and their partners in developing countries. Exceed was established by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in 2009 and funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) since its inauguration. The ex-post evaluation on Exceed serves both for assessment of the individual projects as well as of the exceed programme as a whole. The results will be a significant component of the talks with the BMZ with regard to continued support of the exceed programme. New advertisement of exceed or a comparable programme will be aimed for 2018 if results are positive. Against this background, the evaluation was intended to answer key issues regarding conception and effectiveness on programme level