Financing Your Studies: 7 Ways That Actually Work

A part-time degree costs money. Depending on the provider and programme, it can be several thousand euros. Yet financing is rarely the real reason someone does not study. There are ways to reduce the costs considerably. Here are seven options to finance your studies, in the order in which they actually take effect.

First Your Status, Then the Application

The most common mistake in study financing happens before the first application. Almost all funding depends not on the degree you want but on your status. Miss that and you spend months applying to the wrong scheme, only to receive a rejection that says nothing about your plan.

There are essentially three pots:

• Employees: employer contribution, tax deduction, release-from-work schemes such as educational leave. These paths all depend on an existing employment relationship.
• Advanced vocational training: anyone working towards a qualification such as master craftsman, certified business administrator or technician can access the German Aufstiegs-BAföG. That is a separate funding law with its own rules, and it deliberately does not target academic degrees.
• Jobseekers and those at risk of unemployment: an education voucher from the employment agency or job centre, but only for certified further education courses.

This split also explains the most common disappointment: an undergraduate Bachelor programme is usually eligible under neither the education voucher nor the Aufstiegs-BAföG. That is not a technicality but the legislator's intent. Anyone wanting to study almost always finds their lever in the first pot.

Path 1: Your Employer Contributes

Many employers cover part or all of the tuition when the degree relates to your role. Some additionally grant study days or fund the on-campus phases. Bring the topic up early, ideally with a concrete proposal: which programme, what costs, what benefit for the company. The clearer your proposal, the higher the chance of a yes. How to structure that conversation, I describe in my article on getting your employer to pay for your degree.

Repayment Clauses: The Catch in Employer Funding

A contribution is rarely a gift. As a rule you sign a repayment agreement, and that is where it is decided whether the funding really is funding. Check these five points before you sign:

1. Commitment period and proportionality. One to three years is common, scaled to the amount. The commitment has to be proportionate to the sum funded. Disproportionately long ties are open to challenge, but you should not have to rely on that.
2. Pro-rata instead of full repayment. A good clause waives part of the sum for each month you stay. A bad one still leaves you owing the full amount if you leave a month before the deadline.
3. When the clock starts. Does the commitment run from the start of your studies or from graduation? With a four-year degree plus two years of commitment, that is six years in total.
4. Exceptions. What happens in the case of redundancy, parental leave or illness? Circumstances outside your control should be expressly excluded.
5. Tax consequence. Whatever your employer covers, you cannot also claim as an expense. It only counts once.

This is not legal advice, and whether an individual clause holds depends on the case. For five-figure sums, have an employment lawyer look at the agreement before you sign.

Paths 2 and 3: Tax Relief and Release From Work

Path 2, tax. A part-time degree counts in many cases as income-related expenses (second degree) or special expenses (first degree). Tuition, academic literature, work equipment and travel to the university can be claimed, and a second degree has no cap. Switzerland has its own deduction for job-related education and further training, with an upper limit set by the federal government and the cantons. What is deductible in detail is covered in my article on claiming a distance degree on your tax return.

Path 3, release from work. In Germany, depending on the federal state, there is educational leave, usually five paid days per year for recognised courses. In Austria, the former Bildungskarenz has been abolished; since 2026 the Weiterbildungszeit applies with stricter conditions: twelve months of prior employment, a compulsory guidance session and a minimum of 20 ECTS per semester. There is no legal entitlement; your employer has to agree.

Path 4: Public Funding, and Who Actually Gets It

Paths 5 to 7: Instalments, Scholarships and Credit Transfer

Path 5, instalments. Most private universities offer monthly instalments instead of a lump sum, and with many providers these are interest-free. The rate typically ranges between 150 and 500 euros. Check whether the rate keeps running during an extension; that is the item most often missing from people's calculations.

Path 6, scholarships. Scholarships are not only for school leavers with top grades. Many foundations specifically fund working professionals, first-generation students or particular occupational groups. Universities themselves also award partial scholarships and discounts, and hardly anyone asks about them. Applying takes time, but competition is far smaller in part-time programmes than in full-time study.

Path 7, ECTS credit transfer. If you have already completed vocational training, professional development or another degree, ECTS credits can be recognised. You take fewer modules, study for a shorter period and pay less. In some programmes, up to 50 percent of credits can be transferred. How that works is covered in my article on ECTS credit transfer, and you can get a first estimate in the free credit check.

The cheapest tuition fee is the one you never have to pay in the first place. Checking credit transfer is always worthwhile, and always before you enrol.

How to Work Out Your Real Cost

The number in the brochure is not the number leaving your account. A simplified example for a Bachelor programme over four years:

• Total tuition: 12,000 euros
• Employer covers half: minus 6,000 euros
• The remaining 6,000 euros as income-related expenses, at a marginal tax rate of 35 percent: minus roughly 2,100 euros
• Real cost: roughly 3,900 euros, spread across 48 months, so about 81 euros per month
• Plus 30 ECTS recognised, meaning one semester less: another 1,500 euros off

Your marginal tax rate depends on income and country, and whatever your employer pays you cannot deduct on top. Still, the pattern holds: three combined levers turn an apparently unaffordable sum into something on the scale of a phone contract. For actual price levels, see my overview of distance learning costs.

Which combination works in your case depends on your status, your employer and your prior learning. That is exactly what we look at in a free initial consultation, including which applications are worth making and which you can skip.

Conclusion

Financing your studies is not an unsolvable problem, but it is not a matter of luck either. Settle your status first so that you knock on the right door. Then negotiate with your employer and read the repayment clause more carefully than the brochure. Use tax relief, instalments and scholarships as additions, and check credit transfer before you enrol. After graduation, new earning paths open up, for example when you work remotely abroad after your distance degree.