Equal opportunities - Five out of six students do not use Bafög - most are dependent on their parents' money
Five out of six students in Germany do not use Bafög, state loans or scholarships. This is the result of an evaluation carried out by the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) on Friday. The vast majority of students are dependent on financial support from their parents. Nine out of ten young adults rely on help from their family. In addition, more than two thirds have a part-time job alongside their studies.
The importance of state support is very low compared to other sources of money. According to the CHE study, Bafög and student loans are not used nearly as often as parental support, part-time jobs or even financing from one's own resources.
88.5 percent of students do not receive Bafög
A maximum of 16.2 percent of students resorted to Bafög, state loans or scholarships in 2022. As double funding is possible for some offers, an even lower proportion can be assumed. At state level, there were major differences in the use of state support. Thuringia brought up the rear, with 12.7% using the offers. The frontrunner was Saxony with 23.7%.
The graph clearly shows how the number of Bafög recipients has stagnated over the last 20 years. In 2005, 345,000 students received a monthly grant; in 2022, the figure was just 334,600.
Student loans repeatedly criticized
The KfW student loan is also attracting fewer and fewer new customers. The current effective interest rate of over nine percent and suboptimal conditions, such as insufficient funding amounts, no deferral of interest during studies and no funding for semesters abroad, are making the model increasingly unattractive.
This can also be clearly seen in the CHE data. In the last 14 years, the number of new student loans taken out has halved. After a brief high in the coronavirus year 2020, fewer student loans were taken out last year than in any of the 15 years before.
"The fact that at least 84% of students in Germany are now unable or unwilling to take advantage of the state support available to finance their studies shows the urgent need for reform in this area," explained Ulrich Müller from CHE. The delays in the Bafög reform and the high interest rates on the KfW student loan further ensure that students are increasingly left to finance their studies on their own.
Students are dependent on part-time jobs
In addition to parents, part-time jobs are also demonstrably a central cornerstone in the financing of young people's studies. The chart shows the employment rate among students in a nationwide comparison. It is lowest in the four eastern federal states of Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt and highest in the city states of Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin. Here, almost three quarters of all students have a part-time job.
The political measure from which young people have benefited the most in recent years was the increase in the minimum wage to twelve euros per hour in October 2022.
Ulrich Müller sees a clear inequality of opportunity at universities: If the system remains as it is, academic success in future will depend more and more on rich parents or a flexible course of study with the possibility of a part-time job. "Neither of these has much to do with equitable participation in higher education," says Müller.
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- The Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) found that only 16.2% of students in Germany utilized Bafög, student loans, or scholarships in 2022, with the majority relying on financial support from their parents.
- The CHE study revealed that the importance of state support, such as Bafög and student loans, is significantly lower compared to other sources of money, including part-time jobs and personal finances.
- Ulrich Müller from CHE expressed concern that at least 84% of students in Germany are unable or unwilling to use the state support available for their studies, highlighting the need for reform in this area.
- According to CHE data, the number of new student loans taken out has decreased by half over the past 14 years, with the KfW student loan becoming increasingly unattractive due to high interest rates and suboptimal conditions.
Source: www.stern.de
