Accommodation crisis: Colleges to be asked to cut number of days students must be on campus
Another initiative will examine how academic scheduling can be 'optimised to streamline transport and accommodation for students'. Picture: iStock
Third-level institutions will be asked to examine reducing the number of days students must be on campus for lectures to limit commuting and pressure on student accommodation.
The proposal, part of a new Government strategy, will be in the new national student accommodation strategy outlining the Government’s aim to produce 42,000 additional student beds in the next decade.
Higher education minister James Lawless is expected bring the plans to Cabinet in the next fortnight.
As part of the strategy, the Government will also assess students commuting to college. More than 80,000 students live at home, according to previous surveys conducted by the Higher Education Authority.
Commutes over three hours a day will be considered “excessive”, with 15,000 students currently facing “unsustainable” journeys, the Government will be told.
Read More
It will encourage institutions to review whether they can make students’ time on campus “more efficient”.
This will include suggestions to condense students’ classes into fewer days to “minimise the number of commuting days per student” to college campuses and buildings in a bid to tackle both transportation and accommodation issues.
A pilot initiative will be rolled out to examine how academic scheduling can be “optimised to streamline transport and accommodation for students”.
It will also be suggested that class times be scheduled to avoid peak commuting times, allowing students better access to public transport services. Colleges will be encouraged to examine remote or hybrid learning.
The understands that the 42,000-bed target will be met through on and off-campus private developer-led purpose-built student accommodation, as well as increased uptake and promotion of the “rent a room” scheme.
Research published last week by Sherry Fitzgerald stated there is a shortfall of 38,900 bed spaces in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway.
At the end of last year, purpose-built student bed spaces in the State totalled 47,600.
The number of full-time students in HEA-registered third-level institutes for the 2024/2025 academic year stood at 215,585.
The Government’s new student accommodation strategy, seen by the , will say the Government must target the delivery of new student beds while also promoting the rent-a-room scheme to meet the projected need for 42,000 additional spaces by 2035.
The rent-a-room scheme allows people to earn up to €14,000 a year tax-free from tenants.
Another pilot project will be developed to examine how third-level institutions and the National Transport Authority (NTA) can liaise to align their timetables.
Cork Labour senator Laura Harmon told the that this aspect of the plan “sounds like an admission of failure from the Government on student housing”. She said:
“The reality is that students need to be on campus to access other services such as the library and participate fully in student life, which is all part of the college experience. Traffic management is important, and increasing public transport links for students is also key.
“Supply of publicly-owned student accommodation must be increased rapidly, and technological universities must also be able to borrow money to build their own accommodation.”
Elsewhere, the strategy will involve an activation programme to unlock existing but unused on-campus sites and use “nomination agreements” to encourage private investment.
A nomination agreement sets out terms and conditions where one entity agrees to act on behalf of another in some legal matters.
Universities will work with private purpose-built student housing providers to deliver new beds, with the institution having exclusive rights to a set number of rooms for its students.
A framework to allow technological universities to borrow will be included in the strategy.
According to a draft memo circulated to Cabinet ministers late last week, the strategy will also “aim to provide targeted financial support directly to students regardless of whether they are living at home, in rented rooms in an owner-occupied property, in private rental, or PBSA [purpose-built student accommodation]”.
- Louise Burne, Political Correspondent
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
