Student Loan Reforms for German Higher Education: Financing Tuition Fees

Abstract

It is generally agreed that the funding base for German universities is inadequate and perhaps the time has come for serious consideration of the imposition of nontrivial tuition charges. This article compares conventional and income contingent loans (ICLs) for financing tuition fees at German universities. Two aspects are considered: the size of repayment burdens associated with mortgage-style loans, and the time structure of revenue to the government from a hypothetical ICL. We find that tuition fees could increase considerably with the use of an ICL system similar to policy approaches used in Australia, England and New Zealand.