After months of wrangling, the coalition factions have agreed on an increase to BAföG rates, though part of it will now arrive later than originally planned. The BAföG reform is set to take effect from the 2027 summer semester, the Union and SPD parliamentary groups announced on Thursday in Berlin. An increase to BAföG payments had recently been in doubt due to budget constraints. The German National Association for Student Affairs (Deutsches Studierendenwerk) welcomed the agreement.
Under the agreement, the housing cost allowance is to rise from €380 to €440 per month starting in the 2027 summer semester. The coalition agreement between the Union and SPD had originally named the 2026/27 winter semester as the target. The basic subsistence rate for students is to rise to the level of basic social security benefits in two steps: to €503 in the 2027/28 winter semester, and to €563 in the 2029 summer semester.
From the start of the 2028/29 school year or winter semester, income allowances, and therefore income thresholds, are to be automatically raised by 1.5 percent each year. In addition, a "reliable and transparent system for reviewing and adjusting support rates," aligned with the level of basic social security benefits, is to be introduced.
At the same time, BAföG is meant to become more modern and simpler, with applications able to be submitted digitally and in a "user-friendly" way. As a step toward cutting bureaucracy, the requirement to provide proof of academic performance is to be dropped from the fifth semester of study onward.
According to the ministry of Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU), the increase agreed in the coalition contract is due to be approved by the Cabinet at the end of July. "All the groundwork has been laid so that students can reliably count on the increase," Bär explained.
SPD parliamentary vice-chair Wiebke Esdar said that after intensive negotiations, the coalition had "jointly succeeded in securing all the already-agreed benefit improvements in full." This showed: "We are investing specifically in talent, qualifications and the skilled workers of tomorrow, even in challenging times."
Oliver Kaczmarek, the SPD parliamentary group's spokesperson for research policy, stressed that for students the reform means "more money, more reliability, less bureaucracy." This, he said, strengthens trust in BAföG as a dependable means of financing studies.
Florian Müller (CDU), the Union parliamentary group's spokesperson for research policy, said the increase in BAföG rates was "a strong signal to young people who would struggle to pursue their education without the support of the community." He added that the benefit must now be de-bureaucratized and digitized: "We are working together in the coalition to clear away the hurdles that are still holding things back today."
The German National Association for Student Affairs welcomed the agreement as a "good and important signal." However, it called it "a bitter pill" that the housing cost allowance will not rise until the 2027 summer semester, rather than the 2026/27 winter semester as originally promised. "Current students are the ones who lose out.
They will have to get by for another semester with insufficient support of €380 in a housing market that demands significantly higher average rents from them," said Matthias Anbuhl, chairman of the German National Association for Student Affairs.
He said it was also welcome that the BAföG basic subsistence rate would be brought in line with basic social security benefits. However, he criticized the fact that this step would come in two stages, with the full subsistence minimum not reached until the 2029 summer semester.
Nicole Gohlke, education policy spokesperson for the Left Party's parliamentary group in the Bundestag, said the agreement was "no reason to celebrate." "The government leadership is merely implementing the absolute minimum that it has owed young people for years anyway," she said. Elke Hannack, deputy chair of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), called the agreement on BAföG reform "overdue."
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