A Warmer Welcome

This afternoon, there was a demonstration in front of the Academy Building for more student rooms in Groningen. Especially international students have experienced a lot of trouble finding a room the last couple of weeks. Some students have to camp outside or sleep on their friends’ couches. Furthermore, the internationals that were able to find a room are experiencing more obstacles in the process than Dutch students. Research has shown that they pay 20% more rent on average, they more likely to be victim of fraud, and they are more likely to be tricked into paying illegal mediation costs. Evidently, the housing problem is becoming bigger and bigger. This calls for more attention and action.

Don’t look away, but tackle the problem

Since a few years, the University of Groningen has put a lot of effort into internationalization. This had led to a doubling of the number of internationals in the past five year. A lot of money, time and energy has been reserved by the University to attract international students. But when it comes to housing of these large quantities of incoming students, the university holds back and points to the municipality and housing cooperatives.

However, this problem is obviously also the problem of our university. It is irresponsible to welcome internationals to Groningen but at the same time not being able to support them in finding a living space. The University of Groningen can only live up to her international ambitions when she is a good host for all of her incoming students.

Especially the information provision should be improved. It should be made clear to international students in time that they will need to look for a living space themselves whenever they come to Groningen. Also, they should be well informed about their legal rights and duties as a tenant, as well as about their risks as internationals. Moreover, they have to be provided with more information about finding a room in the private sector, so that they can find their way in the regular housing market.

For this purpose, the university launched the online platform athomeingroningen.com, together with the Hanze University of Applied Sciences and the municipality. Later this year, we will evaluate the platform and the information provision as a whole and see where it can be improved.

Besides information provision, the university needs to work together with the Hanze, the municipality and housing cooperatives in finding better opportunities for student housing. If it becomes evident that there are too few housing opportunities, the University of Groningen will have to take a critical look at her internationalization policy.

Meanwhile, concrete solutions have to be found for those internationals that still don’t have a place to live in Groningen. We are glad that a temporary solution has been found in the building at the Van Swietenlaan, but this is by far not sufficient. We hope that the involved parties can jointly find a permanent solution for the students who are now left out in the cold.

A lot of different parties like the UG and the municipality have been involved in solving this problem and Lijst Calimero is no exception. Like previous years, we will urge the UG to take its responsibility to ensure that international students are well informed of the challenges of finding a room. We will continue to keep a close eye on the housing situation in Groningen.