After months of wrangling, Germany's governing Union and SPD have agreed on the major BAföG reform set out in their coalition agreement. For students, the package brings higher rates, more reliable rules and a simpler application process – even if one central step will come later than originally promised.
At its core is the housing cost allowance for everyone who no longer lives with their parents. It will rise from 380 to 440 euros, though only from the summer semester of 2027 and thus half a year later than planned.
The monthly basic requirement, currently 475 euros, is also to be raised in two steps to the basic-security level, according to the SPD: to 503 euros for the winter semester 2027/28 and to 563 euros for the summer semester 2029. In addition, there will be a dynamic adjustment of the income allowances, a faster digital application procedure and a transparent rule under which the support rates will in future be reviewed regularly and aligned with the basic-security level.
What the coalition emphasises
"After intensive negotiations, the coalition has jointly succeeded in securing all the agreed benefit improvements in full," said deputy SPD parliamentary leader Wiebke Esdar. Research-policy spokesman Oliver Kaczmarek spoke of "more money, more reliability, less bureaucracy", and rapporteur Lina Seitzl summed it up: "BAföG will become more reliable, higher and simpler." From the Union side, deputy parliamentary leader Inge Gräßle pointed to the economic situation: the expansion of state benefits could "not be shaped in isolation from the overall economic situation", and ensuring growth remained a shared task.
The agreement was reached in the night to Thursday. Joachim Ebmeyer (CDU), a member of the Bundestag's research committee, confirmed it to Forschung & Lehre and expects the reformed law to reach the cabinet on 29 July, with the parliamentary process concluded in the autumn. Beforehand, the reform had been in doubt for months; Union parliamentary leader Jens Spahn and Research Minister Dorothee Bär had questioned the increases. Raising the housing allowance later saves the state money – the coalition agreement expressly places all measures under a financing proviso.
Reliable support matters to many: in 2024, according to the Federal Statistical Office, around 612,800 people received BAföG – the lowest figure since 2000, among them 483,800 students and 129,000 pupils. With the reform now secured, student financing is meant to regain its reliability.