"The Bafög has an acceptance problem": Students at the University of Halle-Wittenberg (symbol image)
Photo:
Waltraud Grubitzsch / dpa
A new study shows that there are drastic differences between the individual federal states when it comes to student financing.
The proportion of Bafög recipients in Saxony is the highest nationwide, and it is lowest in Saarland.
The figures were collected by the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) in Gütersloh.
According to this, in Saxony in 2021, 18 percent of students received a monthly average of Bafög funding.
In Saarland it was only 8.3 percent and not even half as many.
Nationwide, the proportion was around eleven percent.
For the first time in ten years, the nationwide BAföG quota has improved slightly compared to the previous year.
On a monthly average, around 333,000 students received state student support in 2021.
According to the study, BAföG is still well ahead of other options when it comes to sources of financing.
Student loans use three percent of the students, a Germany scholarship or scholarships from the gifted organizations use one percent each.
According to CHE, however, in recent years students have mainly relied on support from their parents (86 percent), part-time jobs (61 percent) or their own savings (18 percent) to cover their study costs.
"The dramatically low funding rate shows that the Bafög in its current form has both a design and an acceptance problem," says Ulrich Müller from the CHE.
If an instrument intended to offer help and security finds itself in difficulties, the consequences are serious.
"Currently, almost 89 percent of students no longer receive student loans," warn the authors of the study.
The Federal Statistical Office recently stated that the financial situation of the students gave cause for concern.
Accordingly, the relative risk of poverty among students in Germany is more than twice as high as among the population as a whole.
CHE researcher Müller therefore demands that state student support must be completely redesigned.
Trade associations such as the Education and Science Union (GEW) and the German Student Union (DSW) are also pushing for a significant increase in state student funding.
"The students are coming out of the corona pandemic financially and mentally on their gums," says DSW Secretary General Matthias Anbuhl.
Added to this are the skyrocketing prices and, not infrequently, "sometimes horrendous ancillary rental costs".
him/AFP