Germany is offering interest free loans to students who have been hard hit by the effects of the coronavirus. Foreign students are now eligible for help as part of Germany’s emergency coronavirus spending.
They have a long lean run behind them, relying either on their own initiative or public solidarity.
Some of the students studying in the country were suffering under financial strain even their extra sources of income had been close down when jobs had to be shut down.
They had been forced to seek help back home but the effects of the pandemic were not only hitting them hard, but their sponsors too.
Germany’s KfW state development bank is giving out additional student loans and these loans are now available to students without German citizenship as part of the governments’ package hoping to help struggling students with ‘coronavirus’ student loans.
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“Such a broad package for students from an education ministry is unique in European terms, perhaps even in international terms,” raved Education Minister Anja Karliczek when presenting the package at a press conference last month.
Students who are legible apply and are given the lean according to how much they can pay back. At first the loan is interest free then a low interest of around 4% will kick in later and 18 months after the first bank transfer the first repayments will be due.
However there is a required sum of €20 per month for international students in Germany to pay. The students applying come mainly from Iran, India, Bangladesh, Syria, and Tunisia. They all had to wait one month longer than the German students claiming similar assistance
What makes one legible?
Many students do not meet the strict requirement for eligibility as to qualify in the unusual Germany University system that allows students to progress at almost any pace. Applicants must be in one of their first 10 semesters (or five years) of university education.
Source: Bundestag