Study “Extensive Bafög Reform urgently necessary”

Heidelberg University underlines the urgency of a timely reform of the German student grant system BAföG (short for German Federal Training Assistance Act) and a rise in funding rates. The Rectorate fully supports an appeal to this effect by the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK). “It is a challenge to keep up with requirements and successfully complete a university degree, and demands the full attention of our students,” underlines Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, Rector of Ruperto Carola. “An extensive BAföG reform is urgently necessary. Otherwise we will risk seeing numerous talented young people not venturing to begin a university course due to financial concerns. That is not only socially unjust, it is also detrimental to academia, industry and society.”

“The German Federal Government should therefore lose no time in implementing what was announced in the coalition agreement,” Prof. Melchior urges. Further delays – or even scrapping an amendment to the law – would create enormous uncertainty among current and prospective students and weaken Germany as a research location. The German Rectors‘ Conference issued a public statement on the BAföG debate in early June.