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German education ministry plans reform to boost financial support for students: report

November 25th 2018

By Xinhua

Germany's Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU) aims to increase financial support for students and plans to reform a law that regulates subsidies for education (BAfoG), newspapers of the German Funke media group report with reference to a draft paper from the ministry on Tuesday.

According to the cited paper, Germany's governing parties intend to spend an additional one billion euros (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) on the reform.

Prices for student apartments are rising in Germany, especially in popular university cities such as Berlin and Munich and the number of jobbing students has increased. About two thirds of German students are working part time in addition to their studies.

Education minister Karliczek wants to raise financial support which has a maximum monthly rate of 735 euros (828 U.S. dollars) to each student by 15 percent. According to Funke media, the CDU politician also wants to increase the number of recipients, and take away students' fear of indebtedness.

In order to be entitled to financial student support in Germany, students need to have the German citizenships, be generally suitable for the selected course and not exceed the general age limit of 30. However, non-German citizens can also apply for financial student support if they have prospects of staying in Germany and are already integrated into the German society.

The reform will "significantly increase" financial support to students in 2019 and 2020, Karliczek told Funke media. Based on the draft paper, the reform is expected to come into effect in the fall of 2019.