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Students in Berlin (archive image)
Photo: Jens Kalaene / picture alliance / dpa
Due to coronavirus-related emergencies, tens of thousands of students have applied for new loans from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) in the past five months.
In total, KfW received inquiries for almost one billion euros in student loans.
This emerges from a letter from the Federal Ministry of Education to the budget committee of the Bundestag, which is available to the German Press Agency.
According to this, around 30,800 applications for a KfW student loan with a total amount of 919.6 million euros were submitted from May to September.
That is almost four times as many applications as in the same period a year ago.
According to a KfW spokeswoman, 8,500 applications for a KfW student loan with a total volume of 315 million euros were submitted from May to September 2019.
The spokeswoman described 2019 as an average year.
The average number of contracts concluded a year is a good 23,000.
Interest-free - but only for a few months
Since May, student loan agreements have temporarily stopped paying interest.
This regulation is valid until March 2021 and is intended as an aid measure in the Corona crisis.
"The offer is in high demand by both German and foreign students," says the letter from the Federal Ministry of Education.
The student loan was also opened to students from abroad for the period of the interest exemption.
more on the subject
One month more Corona aid: Emergency aid for students will be extended
Corona help for students: When a little is not enough By Sophia Schirmer
Credit and grant: The Corona aid for students - and the criticism of it
Loans for students in need: "In the beginning completely wrong" An interview by Armin Himmelrath
In principle, a maximum of 650 euros per month for up to 14 semesters are paid out via the KfW student loan, i.e. a maximum of 54,600 euros.
Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek initially presented the loan as "interest-free" in the spring.
However, she then had to admit that only the payout phase is interest-free - which earned her the accusation of fraudulent labeling.
In truth, it is "a perfectly normal bank loan that is sold as an interest-free loan, but in reality has to be paid dearly," said Andreas Keller, university expert from the Education and Science Union, in an interview with SPIEGEL.
Loan is more expensive than average
Jens Brandenburg, university policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, also criticized the government's aid as inadequate.
The freedom from interest is a "sham", the KfW loan is no solution for the financial problems of those affected.
"Already in April more than four percent interest will be due again. This is not a crisis-proof student financing, but a half-hearted new customer discount for the development bank," said Brandenburg.
In fact, the current effective interest rate at KfW is 4.16 percent - well above the market average.
Instead, the coalition should have opened student loans, with interest-free repayment only with good income after graduation, according to Brandenburg.
"It is high time for a structural reform of the Bafög to a parent-independent funding," said Brandenburg.
The Federal Ministry of Education had set up a temporary emergency fund as further corona aid.
From June to September of this year, up to 500 euros per month were paid out to those who could prove via their bank statements that they were in financial distress due to lost income, for example from student jobs.
This money does not have to be paid back.
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