Last updated 5. March 2025 | Sprecherinnen

“Can I get the money for my semester ticket back this semester?”

Over the last few weeks, we have received a number of inquiries as to whether the semester ticket will be refunded in full, or at least in part.

Unfortunately, we must now definitively deny this. The contract with the various providers does not provide for any repayment under the given circumstances: Theoretically, the offer could be used to a sufficient extent – even if that would not be a sensible idea for good reasons. We also cannot take the money out of our budget to reimburse it, because that would be up to 1.5 million euros and the student body could not afford that.

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Why is that?

Negotiations were also held at state level with the transport companies. Interim results regarding the semester ticket reimbursement were actually achieved there, but these were not pursued further for the following reasons:

1. the interim result had not yet been agreed with all transport companies. The next meeting would not have been until June. The result would therefore only have become apparent in the summer semester 2021, as the WiSes contribution regulations of almost all universities and colleges must be in place in May

.2 It would have been a reimbursement of 10-15 euros if all companies had agreed. However, this would have invalidated the contract’s regulatory instruments. These include the fact that the number of users [Personenkilometer] is included in the next price change. So the fewer people use the services now, the cheaper or less expensive the ticket will be in the future. Several months of hardly/no use will have a financial impact that is likely to exceed the amount offered. This change would take effect from winter semester 2021/2022. An example from practice: The upcoming ticket price increase for winter semester 2020/2021 is only half as high as originally forecast in the contract due to the usage behavior of recent years.

3. a refund can only be realized by reducing contributions, as a payout would encounter many problems. There would be very high personnel costs [Dieser müsste auf die Studis umgelegt werden], security concerns with cash payments and a very large data[schutz]problem both here and with digital repayment, as data would have to be collected [IBANs der Studis liegen nicht vor] and stored for several years.

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In conclusion, it can be said that none of the student bodies saw themselves in a position to continue the negotiations with a very unpredictable result. The one-off payment would have made future pricing for the ticket very difficult and it might have become even more expensive. This would have put future generations of students at a great disadvantage.
It was decided that it would be more expedient for all student bodies to campaign for an improvement in the financial study situation in particular, e.g. by campaigning for the suspension of long-term tuition fees, extension of BAföG entitlements, etc. [siehe auch “Nicht-Semester”].

At this point, we would also like to draw your attention once again to our hardship regulations, which you can find here. In certain cases, the semester ticket will be refunded upon application.