Construction of 735 student residences on the TU Eindhoven campus started on Tuesday. The residential towers should be ready next year to combat the housing shortage among students. “It’s not enough, more homes are needed”.
Finding a room in Eindhoven is difficult. It sometimes leads to harrowing cases, such as sleeping on a friend’s couch or even in a tent, like last summer. The 735 student residences at TU/e will help to combat that problem.
“We are very happy that we can start this project. We notice that it is very difficult for students to find a room and that we even have to point out to international students that they must have a place to stay before they can come and study with us”, explains TU/e director Nicole Ummelen.
‘Not enough’
The 735 student residences are therefore a step in the right direction. However, it is still not enough, Ummelen emphasises. “New students arrive every year. We are keeping an eye on how many homes still need to be added. So, you can speak of a shortage, which we will no longer make up the shortfall. Our campus is filled to capacity with 1500 student homes after this project”.
Attraction
“This is not enough for the coming years”, alderperson Mieke Verhees agrees.”This project will attract more students. There is already a great need for student housing, so more homes are certainly needed.
Responsibility
The VVD, CDA, PvdA and SP factions in the city council have stated that TU/e must do more to combat the housing shortage. “Colleges of applied sciences and universities attract lure students to Eindhoven, but only then do they come to the conclusion that there is no accommodation”, says Jannie Visscher of the SP. “The university has an interest in bringing so many students here. That’s good, but then you also have to take your responsibility”, adds VVD councilor Tom Meylink.
Ummelen: “It is a bottleneck every academic year when new students arrive and of course we want to give them the best possible education possible. In some cases, however, this is unfortunately not possible and then we will just have to say ‘no'”.
Source: Studio040.nl
Translated: Yawar Abbas
