Temporary international student accommodation at location Van Swietenlaan

Full Press Release from September 5

Last week, it became clear that a small number of the three thousand international students who recently arrived in Groningen are having trouble finding suitable housing. The University of Groningen (UG), Hanze UAS Groningen and the Municipality of Groningen recognized this problem and joined forces to provide a solution in the shape of temporary accommodation. As a result, as from Friday 8 September, 100 international students will be housed in the premises formerly used by the COA (Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers) at Van Swietenlaan 23. They will live there until 31 October at the latest.

Although the Van Swietenlaan 23 location has plenty of separate toilets and showers, it has no kitchens. The 100 beds are divided into 1, 2 and 3-person rooms and will all be fitted with new divan mattresses. The price has been kept deliberately low: students will pay just € 16 per person per night. Students will be told about this opportunity through the usual channels used to communicate with international students by Wednesday 6 September.

Turnover
We hope that this solution will give students time to look for a regular room or apartment within the existing stock. Approximately 4,000 new units have been added to the student housing stock in the past few years, some of which are specifically aimed at international students, such as the recent Upsilon project run by SSH on Zonnelaan with room for 465 students. In an effort to find a permanent solution to the housing problem for international students, the teaching institutions and the Municipality have plans to provide another several thousand new units in the forthcoming years. But it is also important to promote existing private student housing, by ensuring that regular student houses offer rooms to international students.

At home in Groningen
International students are personally responsible for finding somewhere to live. This can be very difficult in a new city that they know little about. For this reason, in July 2017, the English website At Home in Groningen was launched to give information about student housing and life in Groningen. The site also has maps and photos, and in the future will serve as a platform for reliable private landlords to advertise their rooms directly, including landlords of student houses.