{"id":132088,"date":"2021-11-02T15:04:33","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T14:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=132088"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:57","slug":"not-enough-flats-to-house-all-euc-first-years-in-the-same-student-residence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/11\/02\/not-enough-flats-to-house-all-euc-first-years-in-the-same-student-residence\/","title":{"rendered":"Not enough flats to house all EUC first-years in the same student residence"},"content":{"rendered":"

In spite of promising guaranteed housing, Erasmus University College (EUC) can\u2019t house all first-years in the LUCIA student residence. EUC says the reason is fewer cancellations <\/b>than expected. At least 16 students had to look for an alternative, something a few of them described as \u2018extremely stressful and frustrating\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Students in the LUCIA student complex on Stadhuisplein will get 192 euro back from the owner of the building. <\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWouter Sterrenburg<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

It\u2019s been a chaotic experience for 19-year-old Alina Pirou. When she arrived in Rotterdam to hand over her diploma in early July, she discovered she wasn\u2019t on the list for the LUCIA student residence where all first-year EUC students are housed. The following Monday, her programme confirmed that for the first time, there was a waiting list, and her name was on it.<\/p>\n

The students on the waiting list were given three options: they could still cancel because they didn\u2019t receive guaranteed housing, postpone their studies for a year and be guaranteed a room next year, or look for \u2018regular\u2019 housing in Rotterdam with the faculty\u2019s assistance.<\/p>\n

Alina chose the last option: \u201cI registered before the deadline, so I wasn\u2019t expecting to be placed on a waiting list. I would have preferred to know that earlier on because the cancellation deadline for Leiden was just a week earlier and I had also cancelled my place on the waiting list for Utrecht. I couldn\u2019t just switch to a different study programme and now I had only a month to find a place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfair<\/h2>

Similarly, 18-year-old Estelle Pelayo also ended up on a waiting list: \u201cIt felt unfair, especially because everywhere you look it says you\u2019re guaranteed housing in your first year. And unfortunately, the programme didn\u2019t clearly explain how the situation arose or what criteria were used to place me on a waiting list. In fact, people who lived in the vicinity of Rotterdam did <\/i>end up getting a flat in LUCIA. I fully understand that the faculty can\u2019t arrange housing for me elsewhere, but it\u2019s not easy finding a place to live in just one month. The whole thing was extremely stressful and frustrating, I felt powerless.\u201d<\/p>\n

EUC Managing Director Kitty Yang understands that frustration: this was also an unforeseen and stressful situation for the University College. \u201cUsually, a number of students who have been admitted cancel in June, but that didn\u2019t happen this year and we weren\u2019t expecting that. So you end up with more students than rooms available. We contacted the students individually in early July to let them know this could potentially be a problem. We then had weekly contact with the students and started to actively help the ones who still wanted to come this year in their search for housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yang thinks the higher numbers of students is mostly due to the pandemic. Many students took a gap year during this period, and that resulted in more applications this year. \u201cWe had an unprecedentedly high number of applications this year where we exceeded a thousand for the first time. You want to give a chance to the ones who have already taken a gap year and we were lenient when it came to the selection procedure.\u201d Those factors, combined with very few cancellations, led to the current situation where 16 first-years aren\u2019t living in the LUCIA residence.<\/p>\n

Lessons learned<\/h2>\n\t
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Een lijst met artikelen<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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