The fairest way to finance your studies

The minimum amount you can finance as living expenses is 5,000 euros.

The maximum amount of funding you can get is 30,000 euros (or less, depending on your field of study).

To give you as much financial flexibility as possible, we conclude a financing contract with you for a range of 5,000 euros instead of a fixed amount. With this range, you define a minimum amount and a maximum amount that can be financed. You can move flexibly between these two amounts, depending on how your needs develop during your funding.

You can choose between the following bandwidths:

5,000 – 10,000 euros
10,000 – 15,000 euros
15,000 – 20,000 euros
20,000 – 25,000 euros
25,000 – 30,000 euros

(Depending on the field of study, some bandwidths may not be offered.)

• We can finance all EU citizens and German citizens / Bildungsinländer*innen. Refugees with a residence title according to § 24 or § 25 AufenthG can apply under certain conditions. Details can be found here.
• The age limit for a Bachelor’s degree is 40 years and for a Master’s degree 43 years.

As the funding of living expenses is still in its early stages, we are unfortunately not able to support all degree programs so far.

At the moment, we can fund students in the following study areas:

• Human Medicine
• Economics
• Social Affairs
• Computer Science

Your university is not listed in the application form? No problem, an application is still possible! Please send us an email to lebenshaltungskosten@chancen-eg.de. We will then add your university and you can directly proceed with the process.

We hope this list will continue to expand, so if your major is not currently listed, please check back in the future to see if it has changed.

All information about the application process can be found here.

There is no minimum time limit for financing your studies. The lower limit is only set by the 5,000 euros minimum financing amount.

After starting you financing with us, we will support you in your studies up to your standard period of study plus four semesters; your official semester count is relevant here. You can apply for an additional semester if you will complete your studies in this semester.

Of course, semesters off don’t count into your official semester count – but your financing can continue under certain conditions (see information below).

You can get up to 1,000 euros a month for living expenses. In addition, once a year you can receive a payout of 1,500 euros on top – so purchases such as a new laptop or travel expenses for a semester abroad are no problem.

The year after completing your studies the repayment period begins. Within this period you have to actively repay for 8 years (repayment years) in total, but only until the end of your  25-year contract period. However, your actual repayment only starts after you have reached the minimum income threshold. This is reached once your positive income exceeds 27,000 euros/year.

With the Income Share Agreement (ISA), your repayment is completely dependent on your income. After your studies, you pay a percentage of your positive income back to the CHANCEN cooperative.

The repayment percentage is fixed in the ISA and depends on your field of study and your financing amount. However, it cannot exceed a maximum of 15%.

• Conditions Human Medicine
• Conditions Economics
• Conditions Social Affairs
• Conditions for Computer Science

Your repayment starts on 01 January following your exmatriculation: if you were exmatriculated on 30.09.2050, your repayment period starts on 01.01.2051. Whether you then actually have to repay depends on your income situation.

With CHANCEN eG’s living expenses ISA, you can concentrate fully on your studies. We want you to successfully complete your studies and find a good start to your professional life. To do this, you keep us in the loop and show us each semester that you are actively studying, by providing us with:

• Each tri-/semester: Transcript of Records
• Each tri-/semester: Proof of immatriculation
• If applicable: interim report
• If required: individual semester report

Within your field of study, you can change your degree course and keep your ISA. However, the classification of a degree course within a field of study must be checked by CHANCEN.

If you want to change to a new field of study, you can submit an application to take the ISA-financing to the new course. In any case, this must be reviewed and approved by CHANCEN. A new financing interview with us may also be necessary.

Following successful approval, we will conclude a new ISA at the conditions of the new study subject. Everything we have already paid out for your previous studies will automatically be transferred to this ISA. In total, the maximum amount of 30,000 euros still applies (e.g.: If you have already received 10,000 euros for the first study, we will still pay out a maximum of 20,000 euros for the second). In addition, your total repayment percentage may never exceed 15%.

Under certain circumstances, your living expense funding may continue during your semester off:

• If you are required to do a mandatory internship, you can continue to receive funding.
• If you use a semester off for a voluntary internship or a study abroad, you can also continue to be financed.
• We fund up to one semester of leave for personal reasons (illness, maternity/paternity leave).

If you take a semester off without a connection to your studies, the payment is paused.

In the event of dropping out, the financing model remains fair: repayment remains income-dependent and is secured by the annual minimum income. The terms of repayment are adjusted to the financing amount that was paid out.

Restarting studies: If you decide to resume your studies after some time, you can of course reapply for funding with us. The funding that was already paid out will then be taken into account in the new ISA (see above at Change of study programme). If you have already repaid in the meantime, this will be credited to you as a credit for later repayment.