{"id":81750,"date":"2017-11-22T17:09:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T16:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=81750"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:53","slug":"international-office-wishes-to-provide-more-student-accommodation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/11\/22\/international-office-wishes-to-provide-more-student-accommodation\/","title":{"rendered":"International Office wishes to provide more student accommodation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The student housing shortage has increased considerably in the last few years<\/a>. As a result, many international students end up without a room<\/a> or fall prey to unscrupulous landlords and frauds<\/a>. The university\u2019s current housing policy is no longer up to the task, says member of Real Estate Management (RES) Raphael Boegheim.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso,\u201d he says, \u201cas an international student, you will find it very hard to get a degree here if you don\u2019t have a roof above your head. The Executive Board will have to make a decision with far-reaching implications on how to deal with the new housing situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Core business<\/h3>

In association with all of EUR\u2019s faculties, RES and IO has drawn up a new policy plan that it will submit to the Executive Board. \u201cAt present, the university does not provide housing as a core business but rather as a courtesy. We want housing to become a more important aspect of the university\u2019s duties. Some of our fellow universities, such as Maastricht University, do now regard the provision of housing as one of the university\u2019s core duties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some three thousand international students come to the Erasmus University each year. Says Boegheim, \u201cWe are already seeking to expand our number of rooms by looking into a partnership with Xior and by entering into agreements with Housing Anywhere. In the year 2017-2018 we provided 870 international students with rooms. All the other students had to find themselves accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Rotterdam\u2019s housing market is no longer what it used to be. \u201cBack in 2011, when the current housing policy was drawn up, the Rotterdam housing market had great absorption capacity,\u201d says IO\u2019s Jikke Verheij. \u201cBut the market has changed, and it is now much harder for students to find rooms on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Improvement<\/h3>

The International Office has seen a great deal of improvement in the last year. \u201cAs far as we can tell, we have received fewer complaints this year than we did last year,\u201d says Verheij. \u201cIn addition, by now [mid-November] we have provided help to all international students who came to see us because they were experiencing problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Where is my dorm?\u2019<\/h3>

Nevertheless, there were many students last September who were unable to find rooms and so had to stay at hostels<\/a>. \u201cIn September, the number of students unable to find rooms always peaks. But that is, apart from the big number of students, sometimes because they were insufficiently prepared,\u201d says Boegheim.<\/p>\n

He thinks the blame is not on the communication of the IO. \u201cWe explicitly state on the website and through other channels that students must prepare and embark on their search for a room early. Unfortunately, we still get students who turn up with a suitcase on the day their lectures begin and ask, \u2018Where is my dorm?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

read more about the housing shortage special<\/h2>