UL to build new student village to meet rising accommodation demand

Construction on University of Limerick's ninth student village is to begin next month with a view to it being ready for August 2023.

UL Provost and Deputy President, Professor Shane Kilcommins, said the university has created more than 600 extra CAO places over the past two years at the request of the Government, and this growth in student population must be matched by new student accommodation facilities. File picture: Kieran Clancy

Planning permission has been received for a new student village near the main campus at University of Limerick (UL).

In a bid to ease pressure on the housing supply for students, the university will fund the building of a 20-house development comprising of 80 bedrooms.

This will be the ninth student village at UL. Construction is to begin next month with a view to it being ready for August 2023.

“We are looking at every single possibility we can to try to meet the huge demand for accommodation for our student community,” said UL Provost and Deputy President, Professor Shane Kilcommins, who welcomed the project which was approved by UL's governing authority this week.

The new student village will be located 2km from the main campus in Rhebogue, towards the city centre campus. The university has not yet selected which student cohort can avail of the new accommodation.

Mr Kilcommins said: “We will be working to identify the most suitable student cohort, between undergraduate, postgraduate and our visiting international students."

“The purchase of these 20 new houses is just one of the short- to medium-term responses identified by UL, however the demand for student accommodation is likely to persist in line with our national housing shortage,” he added. 

He said the current student education crisis cannot solely be resolved by higher education institutions.

“There needs to be a multi-stakeholder approach, supported by Government, to ensure third-level students are adequately and appropriately accommodated.” 

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He said the university has created more than 600 extra CAO places over the past two years at the request of the Government, and this growth in student population must be matched by new student accommodation facilities.

“UL already provides the largest percentage of on-campus accommodation per student population of any higher education institution in Ireland with bedrooms available to almost 16% of our students,” he said. “We are committed to growing our student numbers at UL and will consider all viable, cost-effective opportunities to increase our student accommodation stock.” 

The university has estimated it will take 27 years to repay the capital expenditure spent on the project, which should “maintain affordable rental charges for students”. The development will be built by a private developer and purchased by the university through subsidiary Plassey Campus Centre.