Study grants & co: The best savings tips for students

Study grant

Even if you do not have to pay tuition fees at our university of applied sciences, you can still apply for financial aid from the Student Aid Office. The amount and entitlement varies depending on your parents' income, living situation and age.

Austrian citizens as well as "foreigners and stateless persons of equal status" (§ 4 StudFG) are entitled to this. You can find all information on this at www.stipendium.atSide fact: Many students do not even know that they are entitled to the study grant because they simply do not apply for it. The Chamber of Labour's scholarship calculator can give you a rough estimate. In any case, you can give it a try.

The Vienna Scholarship Office is responsible for students at educational institutions in Burgenland. They offer you the following contact options:

• Telephone counselling at Tel: +43 1 60 173-0
  on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9:00 to 12:00
• Once a semester, the scholarship office will also come to our campuses in Eisenstadt and Pinkafeld to advise you in person - the dates will be announced in good time under Events.

Merit scholarships

In order to recognise special achievements in your studies, the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland awards merit scholarships (usually worth € 750) to the most successful students each year.

The application documents are sent to all students via their respective degree programme office at the beginning of October. The requirement for the scholarship is a grade point average of ≤ 2.

Tax deductibility of expenses

In principle, every student can deduct the costs of their studies from their income tax assessment as income-related expenses: At least if the education is related to the professional activity. This also applies to full-time students with total annual income subject to income tax of over € 12,000 (below this amount, no tax is payable). You can find more tax tips for students at the Chamber of Labour.

These income-related expenses include, for example

• Student trips
• Course materials and scripts
• specialised literature
• Notebook, PC, printer, scanner and accessories
• Travel to the training, further education or retraining centre as well as daily allowances if a distant training location has to be visited
• Overnight stays away from home
• Courses taken as part of the training programme

If you are self-employed, you can claim your studies as business expenses. Again, please note: Only if the training is related to your professional activity. The tax liability arises from an annual income of € 11,000, so the business expenses only have a tax-reducing effect from this amount.

Discounts for students

Not to forget the student discounts that you can benefit from during your training period. There are numerous providers who will help you with student accounts as well as discounted cinema tickets and travel during your time as a student. You can find an overview at iamstudent.at, for example.

Another hot tip: at u:book.at, you can get high-quality laptops, convertibles and tablets at a favourable price during certain sales windows. The offer is valid for students, pupils and employees of Austrian educational institutions.