Formular Upgrade Semesterticket
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Students at the University of Kassel will again be able to convert their semester ticket into a Germany ticket at low cost in the coming winter semester. The AStA of the University of Kassel and the mobility partners KVG and NVV have agreed on a digital way to do this.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
In October, the conditions for your Deutschlandticket student upgrade will change. For the sake of simplicity, we'll call it an upgrade here.
If you no longer want your upgrade on October 1, you don't have to do anything. All existing upgrades will be cancelled automatically. KVG will then collect the money for them retroactively in the fall.
If you want to get the upgrade from October 1, you can sign up now at abo.kvg.de or abo.nvv.de. You'll be prompted to upload proof of eligibility. Then a few things will change, especially the price. You'll find out why below.
The upgrade will then be cancellable on a monthly basis and you can use it on your mobile device.
The total price. The surcharge for your upgrade increases from 23.48 euros to 26.24 euros. You will now pay this price monthly as long as the upgrade is available and you subscribe to it.
The semester fees, which include the semester ticket, are still paid in full to the university.
Up to now and also in the future, the AStA has contracts with four transport associations, so that you can also travel to Paderborn or Fulda, for example.
The NVV sells the Deutschlandticket for 49.00 euros. This is the price set by law.
The NVV already receives 22,76 Euro per month from the AStA. You pay the difference of 26,24 Euro with your upgrade. In addition to the 22.76 euros for the NVV, you will also have to pay a total of 2.76 euros per month for the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, the Verbundgesellschaft Paderborn-Höxter, and the Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe, which you will pay for with your semester fee.
This sum of 2.76 euros is also paid by all "upgraders" as a kind of solidarity contribution, although they already acquire a nationwide travel entitlement with the Deutschlandticket. Because the AStA does not want to cancel the contracts with these neighboring associations. You can find out why in the following.
Orders can be placed a maximum of three months in advance. The earliest validity start date is the 1st calendar day of the following month. Orders can be placed up to three working days before the start date.
You can find information on the exact terms of the contract in the KVG FAQ under "The Deutschlandticket upgrade offer for students"
Click here for the KVG FAQ
There are several reasons for this:
- The geographical location
Kassel is close to other transport associations and is the only major city in northern Hesse. To get to other cities, you have to travel to the territory of other transport associations. However, this would also be possible with the upgrade and is not the main reason. In combination with the following reasons, however, it is relevant.
- Cooperative study programs
The University of Kassel has cooperative programs, e.g. with the University of Applied Sciences Fulda. The universities are not located in the area of the NVV, but events have to be attended there, so the AStA has to make sure that all fellow students can get there.
- Solidarity and the risk of poverty
Reports and studies show that the majority of Kassel students are at risk of poverty - e.g. the social survey of the Studierendenwerk or studies of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband. The latter study refers to the situation of our fellow students nationwide. In general, we students were often not considered in solidarity during the pandemic, the cost of living crisis and now mobility in "rescue packages".
This means that there is a significant percentage of fellow students who cannot pay for the upgrade and still depend on mobility - e.g. due to a cooperative study program. The AStA has decided to maintain these contracts so that these fellow students can travel reliably.
- Usage behavior
The usage behavior since 1.6.23 has shown that significantly fewer students than anticipated have purchased the upgrade. Approximately 2500 have purchased the upgrade to date. The mobility usage of the majority seems to be concentrated in the area of Northern Hesse. The AStA is in talks with the Department of Transportation Planning and Systems, which is currently evaluating the mobility survey from last year in detail. Initial confirmation is that this is the case. You can find an abstract of the study on a page of the university with a search engine of your choice.
- Legal problems
There is information from politics that suggests that the nationwide solidarity ticket should only be designed as an opt-in solution for all universities. This means that if we as a student body decide to adopt the nationwide ticket, the AStA would have to cancel all semester ticket contracts. Should it then come to pass that the Deutschlandticket - and thus also the Solidarticket - will not be continued, it could be that we in Kassel no longer have a ticket at all. Then the AStA would have to renegotiate and that can lead to the fact that there is not a seamless solution again and the conditions become worse. How exactly this is resolved is currently the subject of expert opinions, but above all the political will is necessary to ensure a solution for long-term, sustainable and solidarity-based mobility.
- No price or duration guarantee
Politicians, in particular the Federal Ministry of Transport, have not yet decided on the duration or a price guarantee for the upgrade or the total price of the Deutschlandticket. There are campaigns for a nationwide solidarity ticket, which also includes students; however, this is to be linked to the price development of the Deutschlandticket in percentage terms - i.e. an uncertainty that means that the upgrade will also become significantly more expensive if the price of the Deutschlandticket is increased.
As of September, politicians have not yet made any binding decisions in this regard.
The politicians have also not yet decided on the duration. Not only the AStA demands this, but also social associations, since people are dependent on mobility - not only for studying, but also for the part-time job, the internship or to be able to participate in social life.
This combination is another important reason to keep the "old" semester ticket.
Nothing changes here. You can - within the published deadlines - submit your application for a refund of your semester ticket. There are no changes to the reasons for refund and the deadlines. The upgrade has nothing to do with the refund and cannot be refunded in full or in part. You purchase the upgrade privately and voluntarily. We ask that you refrain from making requests to colleagues as this slows down the processing of the request.
Unfortunately, we cannot help you with questions about payment transactions between you and KVG. Please contact the KVG for this: https://www.kvg.de/service/nvv-abocenter-der-kvg/
If there are any communication problems between you and the KVG, please contact us at mobilitaet[at]asta.uni-kassel[dot]de
The upgrade is not refundable via the hardship regulation, as it is a contract between you and the KVG - unlike the semester ticket, which the AStA concludes with the transport association.