‘I hope the Hanze University and the RUG come together to address the shared responsibility they have to provide suitable housing’, alderman Roeland van der Schraaf said during a council meeting on Wednesday. ‘They often cite rules and regulations as the reason they can’t do more. But I would like to call on them to explore their boundaries, and maybe even go beyond them. Everyone benefits from proper housing for international students.’
Practically everyone in the city council is of the opinion that the educational institutes should do more to ensure that students don’t end up living on the street when they come to Groningen in August.
‘Disappointed’
‘We’re disappointed that students coming here are unable to find a room within a reasonable time span and have to rely on temporary solutions. It’s bad for the students, bad for Groningen’s image as a city of education, and bad for the educational institutes themselves. And it’s not the first time, either’, says Van der Schraaf.
According to the city council, the university should improve its communication with international students even more, to prevent them from coming to Groningen unprepared. ‘Moreover, it would really help in the faster construction of housing if the universities would provide a rent guarantee. That would also eliminate the need for rules about how many international students the university and Hanze are allowed to accept’, according to the alderman.
‘We need better communication and more construction’, Van der Schraaf concludes. ‘And we need to have temporary solutions such as the Van Swietenlaan on hand just in case’, he says.