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BAföG
Who qualifies for BAföG scholarships?
Which apprenticeships come into consideration by BAföG?
What kind of financial aid is offered by the Federal Education and Trainings Assistance Act (BAföG)?
What is the period for which a student may be funded?
Application and competent authorities
Studying abroad and internships abroad
What is the amount of the subsidy for studying abroad?
Subsidies outside the European Union
The goal of the Federal Education Promotion and Trainings Assistance Act (BaföG) is to offer financial support to every young person wishing to earn a degree in a chosen field that is meeting his / her personal requirements, interests and skills.
Who qualifies for BAföG scholarships?
Basically, there are three main criteria that qualify you for the BAföG financial aid: German citizenship, aptitude and fixed age limit.
In general, all German nationals are entitled to apply for a BAföG at any time. Foreign students can apply for BAföG financial aid in the following cases:
- if residing in Germany with a parent being a German citizen as defined by the German Basic Law;
- if they or one of the parents have lived and worked legally in Germany for at least five (or three) years prior to commencement of their studies
- citizens of an EU member state if residing in Germany
- foreign nationals who have been granted asylum in Germany or a special refugee status.
Aptitude must be proven through the student's above-average academic performance, showing that the student is particularly worthy of support. Performance will be demonstrated primarily through the use of institutional reports giving information about the student's participation in classes and the certificates obtained from intermediate examinations.
c) Age restrictions:
BAföG financial aid can be granted to people up to 30 years of age. Anyone older than 30 can apply for a scholarship in the following cases:
- Alumni of second – chance colleges
- Employed people without previous rights to study at a higher education institution
- People, who were unable to visit university due to personal or family (children) illness
- Victims of political persecution in the former GDR
Which apprenticeships come into consideration by BAföG?
Entitled to receive the BaföG financial assistance are first professional degree programmes at higher education institutions (colleges and universities), academies and vocational schools as well as training programmes after Grade 10 in evening, professional and technical schools.
- Akademien
- Höheren Fachschulen
- Berufsfach- und -aufbauschulen (after Grade 10)
- Fach- und Fachoberschulen (after Grade 10)
- Abendhaupt- und -realschulen (after Grade 10)
- Abendgymnasien (after Grade 10)
- Kollegs (after Grade 10)
Note that in-service (company) training and vocational programmes are not sponsored by BAföG.
What kind of financial aid is offered by the Federal Education and Trainings Assistance Act (BAföG)?
a) Grants:
b) Interest-free government loan:
Students at higher education institutions are also given financial aid; one part is in the form of a grant and the other part is an interest-free loan.
What is the period for which a student may be funded?
In general all pupils have the right to be funded throughout their school years. Pupils undergoing a second repetition of a class have to provide serious reasons in order to continue receiving financial aid.
The maximum length of time for which students at higher education institutions and academies may receive financial aid is set by law with respect to the school's regulations and standard period of study.
Students have to obtain an activity confirmation certificate (Leistungsnachweis) and the so-called official form number 5 (Formblatt 5: Bescheinigung nach §48 BaföG) from their university or college in order to continue receiving financial aid for their studies. Under certain circumstances (health and serious accidents) students can request an extension and will continue receiving financial aid.
Application and competent authorities
Students have to obtain an activity confirmation certificate (Leistungsnachweis). This is required after the fourth semester in universities and after the second and fourth semester in some colleges of applied sciences, where taking the intermediate diploma (Vordiplom) is obligatory after the second semester. This activity confirmation certificate gives information on your performance and proves whether or not a course of study is worthy of support; otherwise the monthly loan payments will be discontinued. In case that you are unable to supply this activity evidence certificate on time, you can continue receiving financial aid under certain circumstances and in case that you provide sufficient documents (medical reports for illness or serious accidents, pregnancy, employment or stay abroad, etc.).
If you wish to apply for financial aid (grant) you have to meet the BaföG requirements and submit completed application forms, which you can obtain from all offices for financial aid or download them directly from the BaföG web page.
You apply for this grant personally or represented by a legal agent (if under 15 years of age).
Competent authorities
a) For students: the student union at the university, where you are enrolled as a student
b) Apprentices of evening schools, colleges, vocational schools and academies: the office for financial aid for further training in the region where you study
c) All other pupils: for further training in the city / local authority where is your parent's home address
Studying abroad and internships abroad
You qualify for study-abroad financial aid if you have already attended one year of training in Germany and you have not obtained your first professional degree. Most German higher education institutions have partner universities abroad which makes the exchange of students easier.
ATTENTION: You will need to have sufficient knowledge of the language of instructions and the native language.
An internship for a period of 12 months will be funded by BAföG if it would be beneficial at this stage in a student’s career. Another important requirement is that your university recognizes this time spent abroad as further education or vocational training. If you wish to do an internship outside Europe, you have to meet some special criteria.
What is the amount of the subsidy for studying abroad?
The actual financial aid that you are granted differs from region to region. The grant covers:
- Required tuition fees
- Travel expenditures
- Additional travel insurance costs
IMPORTANT:
The high costs arising from studying abroad and the numerous candidates are the reasons why some students do not get financial aid for their studies. This is only in cases when students' parents have a high income, which makes it more difficult for applicants to receive financial aid at the foreign BAföG offices abroad.
In either case, it is important to apply for a grant as early as possible; at least six months before the beginning of education.
Subsidies outside the European Union
Financial aid for training and further education in countries outside the EU is granted in the following way: during the third semester abroad you have the possibility to request an extension of your grant, up to the fifth semester. Otherwise, you will be granted financial aid only for the first two semesters abroad.
If students take courses abroad from departments that are approved at their home university, they might earn transfer credit for those classes and a recognized degree. This means that their studies abroad were not a waste of time and they have met all the requirements of BAföG for financial aid. Students do not receive any grant when they are studying at a course which is not recognized by their home university, where they were originally enrolled. However, they can apply for a bank credit.
In general young people also have the possibility to apply for a federal scholarship granted to talented pupils or students. BAföG-beneficiaries must be aware that once they are granted a federal scholarship they will no longer receive financial aid through BaföG.