DHe’s on the money street – grab it! Scholarships are waiting for you! Websites for American students sound like this. There is a complete consulting industry to teach new students the joy of scholarship. It is estimated that more than $ 20 billion a year is provided to talented students from the state education fund. Similarly a large amount comes from private foundations, universities and colleges and companies. If you search actively, you will find what you are looking for.
In Germany, there is relatively little money for students on the streets You can contact eleven funding agencies funded by the Federal Ministry of Education. However, their funding is not nearly as great as in America. Non-partisan Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, the largest and oldest of the funding agencies, requires a recommendation from a professor or lecturer. Eva-Maria Goss is one of the approximately 11,000 Handpicked Scholarship holders at Studienstiftung. He receives a basic subsidy: 80 euros per month for books. Not much, but a beautiful recognition. However, moral support is much more important, says the young woman, who is studying social studies at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences in her fifth semester. Also, StudentTiftang makes it possible for him to do a practical semester in South Africa with a grant.
Tim Hogger gets significantly more from the Foundation than the money from the book. Depending on the parents’ income, a grant can be up to 5 585 per month. Höger came to Studienstiftung as one of the best in his Abitur class. “People there are very interested in the same wavelength and intellectually,” he encourages. The business administration student is currently spending a semester at Korea University Business School in Seoul. She has two siblings, and her parents could barely afford to stay abroad. “But with the foundation’s money, I can do better.”
Photo: Cyprian Kosielniak / FAZ
Only two percent of all students receive scholarships
Two exceptions to Germany’s more than two million students. According to a Student Union survey, only 40,000, or 2 percent of all students, receive a scholarship – on average, just under 330 euros a month. Funding agencies have reported a strong increase in demand for scholarships since the introduction of tuition fees in some federal states – typically 500 euros per semester. There are usually ten applicants for each grant. Margaret Wintermantel, president of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), said: “We urgently need a comprehensive scholarship system to encourage young people to study and to close the gap between educators.”
After all, the new government has now set itself a major goal in the alliance agreement: it wants 10 percent of all students to receive “medium-term” scholarships. The previously negligible basic subsidy, the so-called book money, had to be raised to 300 euros – and it would no longer count for Bafög as before. The North Rhine-Westphalia science minister, Andreas Pinkwart (FDP), was particularly committed to the scholarship attack. At his initiative, 1300 scholarships were awarded in his state this winter semester. Pinkworth showed how the state can get on the board of private donors: the state and a private donor fund 300 euros in equal parts. Between Rhine and Ruhr, Pinkwart wants to reach 10 percent in four years.
Until then, there is a long way to go. The Federal Ministry of Education has increased its budget item for gifts – from 80 million euros, up from five years ago, to 113 million euros recently. In addition, about half a million students receive benefits up to 648 euros per month under the Federal Training Assistance Act (Bafög). Half of it is a gift, the other half is an interest-free loan. Overall, the German state is spending about 2.3 billion euros on student loans this year.