After months of wrangling, Germany's black-red coalition of the CDU/CSU and the Social Democrats has agreed on a reform of BAföG, the country's state student-support scheme, designed to give students noticeably more financial security. Its centrepiece is a sharp rise in the housing allowance: recipients who no longer live with their parents are to receive 440 euros instead of the current 280, the responsible policy specialists from the two parties announced.
The higher housing allowance is only one element of a larger package. According to the SPD, the so-called core requirement, currently 475 euros, will be raised in two steps to the level of Germany's basic income support (Grundsicherung) from the 2027/28 winter semester. In addition, a fixed, transparent rule is planned to review and adjust the support rates regularly, benchmarked against the basic-income level. That would let the amount of BAföG track living costs more reliably in future, rather than depending on one-off decisions.
„For students, the reform means more money, more reliability, less bureaucracy," said the SPD's research-policy spokesman Oliver Kaczmarek. „In doing so we strengthen confidence in BAföG as a dependable way to finance studying."
A compromise after long doubt
Whether an agreement would be reached at all had long been uncertain. The Union's parliamentary leader Jens Spahn had spoken out against an increase, and federal education minister Dorothee Bär saw no approval within the governing parliamentary groups as recently as May. Voices in the Union still caution that new benefits must fit the economic situation: the deputy leader of the Union's parliamentary group, Inge Gräßle, warned that expanding state benefits cannot be separated from overall economic developments.
Despite these reservations, the compromise now on the table widens support rather than cutting it. One drawback remains the timetable: the higher housing allowance only takes effect from the 2027 summer semester.
The figures show how badly the instrument is needed. In 2024, according to the Federal Statistical Office, around 612,800 people received BAföG — the fewest since 2000. They included 483,800 students and 129,000 pupils. Higher rates and a regular adjustment could make BAföG more reliable and more attractive again for many.