Approximately 120 temporary beds will be provided in emergency housing or peak overflow (piekopvang) accommodations at Plutolaan 329 in Groningen this year in anticipation of international students who have not yet found a room.
According to a press release from municipality of Groningen, students can start signing up on Monday, 17 July. The rooms will be available from 11 August through 16 October, and can be reserved through At Home in Groningen, a housing site and information source with advice about tenant’s rights and housing norms in the Netherlands.
Plutolaan 329 is operated by SSH, which also provides 1,300 short-stay rooms in buildings across Groningen. The municipality’s plan also hinges on an additional 60 spots being provided by Hospi Housing, an initiative that pairs up students with local hosts for up to six months.
Still seeking housing
Both the RUG and the Hanze have explicitly discouraged students from coming to Groningen if they have not secured housing by 1 August. Such messaging was prompted at least in part by calls from Dutch education minister Robbert Dijkhoff for Dutch universities to be banned from actively recruiting students from abroad.
The number of beds being made available is based on preliminary prognoses from the universities of how many foreign students they are expecting in the autumn. Official student numbers are not confirmed by the universities until around October, at which point all students who have enrolled and will actually be attending have shown up.
Housing Covenant
According to the latest version of the Youth and Student Housing Covenant 2023-2026, student numbers are actually predicted to be (slightly) lower in the coming years in general, but international student numbers are expected to remain high.
The first version of the covenant was created in 2019 in response to the recurring problem of incoming international students struggling to find housing before the academic year begins in September.
The members of the covenant are the RUG, the Hanze, Lefier, Nijestee, De Huismeesters, Stichting Studenten Huisvesting (SSH), Groninger Studentenbond (GSb) and Erasmus Student Network (ESN).
Higher education law
Dutch universities are not legally required to provide housing for students. In the 1980s, Dutch higher education law explicitly stated that providing lodging for students was not the responsibility of the universities. Their sole tasks are to provide students with an education and to conduct research.
Since 2017, the amount of spaces set aside each summer for students still seeking housing has ranged from 100 to 300 beds. Temporary housing on Zernike campus with up to 400 beds was meant to be ready in 2023, but those accommodations are now expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
The Northern Times will have regular coverage of student housing stories in the north in the coming months.
