The number of students receiving student loans increased slightly last year for the first time since 2012 – by 2,000 people (0.4 percent) compared to the previous year. This means that 468,000 students nationwide received benefits under the Federal Training Assistance Act in 2021, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Friday.
There has been a sharp decline in schoolchildren – by ten percent to 155,000 sponsored students. This is mainly due to the change of previously employed people to the ascent bafög, for example in the case of educators who are gaining further qualifications.
“The free fall in Bafög has slowed down, but there is still no stable trend reversal,” comments Matthias Anbuhl, Secretary General of the German Student Union (DSW). This could also not be expected from the current Bafög reform, with which the parental allowances were increased by 20.75 percent in order to significantly expand the group of Bafög recipients after a decade-long decline.
Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) is pleased “that the number of students receiving student loans is finally increasing again”. This is “very good news after many years of decline”. The increase in the average funding amount is also positive. In fact, students receiving funding in 2021 received an average of 579 euros (plus five euros compared to 2020).
Here, too, this year’s Bafög reform should bring a significantly larger jump: The maximum rate has risen from 861 to 934 euros. In addition, beneficiaries who do not live with their parents will receive a one-off heating allowance of 230 euros this year because of the energy crisis.
On the other hand, there are two contrary developments. On the one hand, the responsible minister has repeatedly announced a structural reform of student loans, which is also included in the traffic light coalition agreement and with which the number of supported students is to be raised to new dimensions.
Stark-Watzinger explained on Friday: “Our next goal is not only to reach more people through structural reforms, but also to offer them more flexible and modern support.”
On the other hand, new information from your ministry shows that without this major reform, which should be based, among other things, on the payment of the planned basic child security to students, the number of those receiving student loans could drop significantly again by 2026.
At the request of Nicole Gohlke, deputy chairwoman and education policy spokeswoman for the Left parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the BMBF said that the total number of people receiving student loans would be around 467,000 in 2022, 466,000 in the following year, only 418,000 in 2024 and 385,000 in 2025 fall. According to the forecast, in four years there could only be 319,000 Bafög recipients.
One reason for this could be that the allowances are being caught up again by rising salaries.
According to the questioners, the numbers include all Bafög recipients, i.e. students and schoolchildren. According to Jens Brandenburg (FDP), State Secretary in the BMBF, they are based on a simulation by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology. Brandenburg, however, emphasizes a “considerable estimation uncertainty”.
For example, the current Bafög reform could lead to “behavioural adjustments in the target group” if more students apply for training aid due to public attention. The “hypothetical course” does not correspond to the federal government’s actual plans, explains Brandenburg, with reference to the structural reform planned for this legislative period.
The questioner, Nicole Gohlke, urges us to tackle this quickly. “Despite the full-bodied reform announced, including improvements, there should be 150,000 fewer student loans in four years than now,” she criticized in a statement for the Tagesspiegel. “So the federal government is still saving with its student loan reform.” That was “cynical and clearly not enough”.
Gohlke calls on the federal government to “ideally improve the student loans before winter”. Against the background of inflation and rising energy and food prices, “a poverty-proof student loan that is enough to live on” is needed. The left-wing politician proposes converting the housing allowance into a regionally graded rent subsidy that covers the actual housing costs.
The German student union also points out that the “immense price jumps in food, electricity and heating” are already causing existential difficulties for many students. Secretary General Matthias Anbuhl calls for “a further, rapid increase in the requirement rates”. Overall, the federal government has set important priorities with the increase in parental allowances, age limits and requirement rates.
