DSW: Quickly address BAföG structural reform

HRK and DSW: Quickly address BAföG structural reform

• Joint appeal by Hochschulrektorenkonferenzthe (HRK-German Rectors' Conference) and Deutsches Studierendenwerk (DSW) to the Federal Government
• HRK President Walter Rosenthal: "Needs-based federal education funding is an investment in the future of our society".
• DSW President Beate Schücking: "Vigorously implement the structural reform of BAföG as a central promise of the federal government"

Berlin, 12 July 2023.The German Rectors' Conference (HRK) and Deutsches Studierendenwerk (DSW) jointly appeal to the Federal Government to promptly tackle the structural reform of BAföG announced in the coalition agreement and to provide it with the necessary funds to meet demand. Otherwise, this central instrument for more educational equality would soon lose its function completely, because fewer and fewer students would benefit from the support.

HRK President Prof. Dr. Walter Rosenthal: "Today more than ever, our society is dependent on highly qualified, academically educated specialists in order to meet the numerous existential challenges of our time. It is therefore essential to offer students conditions that enable them to prepare adequately for this responsibility. Anyone who has financial existential worries cannot concentrate on a demanding course of study. The federal government's support for education is therefore an investment in the future of our society.

BAföG is also the central instrument for creating greater equality of opportunity in the education system, which in Germany continues to be characterized by excessive selectivity. This importance of BAföG is in danger of being lost entirely if the structural reform that has been recognized as correct and announced by the coalition government is not implemented quickly now. Too few young people from the lower income groups, often from families in which neither parent has completed a university degree, are still finding their way to higher education. However, the openness and plurality of a society must be reflected precisely in universities as the heart of its science system."

DSW President Prof. Dr. Beate A. Schücking: "BAföG is the heart of state student financing. It has enabled millions of young people to study who would not have been able to afford it without this state financial aid. However, it has lost much of its power because it has not been sufficiently maintained in recent years. The fact that BAföG allowances have not been regularly increased has contributed significantly to the fact that the rate of BAföG students has fallen from almost 30 to 11 percent within ten years.

The German government has therefore promised a turnaround. It is imperative that it reforms the BAföG quickly, even in a difficult budgetary situation, otherwise it will harm the economy and society. We cannot afford to have students drop out for lack of money. After the Corona pandemic, the young generation was promised to be taken care of. The structural reform of BAföG as a central promise of the federal government to the students must not fail."

Media contact at Hochschulrektorenkonferenz:

Dr. Christoph Hilgert
Head of Communications and Press Spokesman
Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK)
Ahrstrasse 39
53175 Bonn
Phone: +49 (0)228 887-152
Fax: +49 (0)228 887-280
E-mail: hilgert@hrk.de

This press release online