In response to an ongoing shortage of rooms for students at NHL Stenden in Meppel, a new student campus will be created at Blakenstein in the former Reest and Wieden water board.
Translation by Traci White
RTV Drenthe reports that the city urgently needs around 100 new rooms to house the students enrolled in the growing International Teacher Education for Primary Schools (ITEps) course at NHL Stenden: there are currently 420 students enrolled in the programme, and there is only housing for 330 of them. The study start week for all of NHL Stenden’s locations will be next week, and classes will start in the first week of September.
As previously reported by The Northern Times, competitive rental markets across the north are also impacting the Drenthe city, and location manager Ton Gelmers said back in April that the city would need around 200 short and medium-term rooms. Gelmers has more recently expressed concerns that students will drop out of the programme if they cannot find a place to live.
To that end, the university of applied sciences is working together with the municipality and other local relevant parties to create more accommodations. The biggest central location will be the former water board building on the Blankenstein industrial grounds, which will have room for 82 students. Due to the building permit only being finalised two weeks ago, a lot of work still needs to be completed at the location: more plumbing and kitchen units will be added to each floor, furniture needs to be distributed and a common room is still being finished.
Other locations that have been considered for student housing are a former library in Nijeveen with 16 studios, and a former doctor’s practice which has been refurbished and converted into 14 rooms.
Photo source: Jansen Vastgoed
