Bafög
The Bafög guidelines have by now been adapted to the new study schemes (Bachelor/Master), although not everyone who completes a Master can receive Bafög money. Most important is that you’ve previously only completed one Bachelor. Everyone who has already successfully completed a Diploma or another Master, no matter which branch of study, has no chance for a Master sponsorship.
Previously only consecutive Masters in connection with the corresponding Bachelor were admitted to be sponsored. Now however, in accordance with information given by the Bafög office, it shouldn’t be a problem to get sponsorship for Masters of different branches of study as long as you only have one Bachelor degree up to this point of time.
For their own safety prospective Master students should get into touch with the Bafög office responsible for them to check the legal situation in their case. It is also important that the Master study has to be started before the age of 30 to be entitled to sponsorship. Extra-occupational Master studies do not get sponsorship in general, because Bafög only addresses fulltime students.
Education loan of the KfW
The education-loan of the KfW especially targets students who are close to finishing their studies or completing a Master study or a postgraduate course. You can obtain 100, 200 or 300 Euros each month for up to 24 months - assuming that the institution you are studying at is Bafög accredited. For this loan you are not allowed to be older than 36 years of age.
A great advantage of the education-loan is the low rate of interest. In addition it is granted irrespective of your income and compared to many other bank loans it doesn’t ask for any securities. You can apply for this loan several times with each beginning of a new phase of training.
The repayment of the education-loan starts four years after the first payout with instalments of 120 Euros a month. With a new sponsorship at the beginning of a new phase of training existing instalments are deferred. More information on the education-loan can be found on www.kfw.de.
