University of Limerick (UL) President Des Fitzgerald has defended a new accommodation scheme that will see a second bed added to rooms originally designed for one person.
The scheme was blasted by UL Student Life and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) earlier this week, with the Union of Students in Ireland calling the two-bed apartments “impossible” to live or study comfortably in.
Fitzgerald said in a Twitter thread today that the situation of on-campus accommodation in UL is “better than at any other university in Ireland”.
“The shortage of student living accommodation in Irish universities has received extensive coverage in the press in the last couple of weeks”, he wrote. “This is against a backdrop of perhaps the biggest housing crisis the State has ever seen and the impact on students and our community is keenly felt.”
“This is also a serious issue for UL. Let me be the first to say that I understand and appreciate the concerns of our students and indeed over the past six months, we have worked closely with @UL_StudentLife in finding solutions to the crisis.”
“This included discussing and developing shared accommodation, which is already available in many universities around the world.”
As well as adding a second bed to one-person rooms, UL have implemented a policy which will only allow final-year students to apply for a single room on campus. Second- and third-year students will be required to share a room if they wish to live on campus for the 2020/2021 academic year.
Some 1,300 people have signed a petition on change.org calling for this “ridiculous” new proposal to be revoked.
Cian McKeon, who started the petition, wrote on change.org: “If you’re going to shaft us, shaft us all THE SAME!”
Fitzgerald continued in his thread: “The situation at UL is better than at any other university in Ireland. ‘We have the largest number of beds per student population. In the past 5 years, we added 1,000 beds, which is a 37% increase & now, with 630 new beds in twin rooms, the total complement is almost 3,500.”
“The shared accommodation, where a maximum of two existing double rooms in a six-bedroom apartment are to be converted to twin rooms, was developed on foot of an extensive survey where 76% of students responded that they would be willing to share rooms.”
He said that UL now has “the most affordable on-campus accommodation in the country”, starting at under €3,000 for the full academic year.
He wrote: “I want to emphasise that in providing accommodation we have to prioritise the most vulnerable students and so first years and international students, who don’t know the campus, the area or their peers, and final year students sitting exams are to be given priority under the new accommodation allocation procedure.”
Speaking to Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One earlier this week, USI president Lorna Fitzpatrick said it is impossible to see how students would live or study in the conditions proposed by UL management.
“The phrase ‘you couldn’t swing a cat in the room’ doesn’t even cover it”, she said. “There is a tiny gap in between two single beds and one small work station at the foot of the bed, so it’s impossible to see how you could live comfortably or study in these conditions.”
She added: “It is important to note that an awful lot of these rooms at universities around the country are assigned on a lottery-based system, so you don’t necessarily know the person that you will be sharing a room with, especially in these conditions.”
Fitzgerald wrote: “We are doing our best to meet an unprecedented demand, which saw almost 7,200 applications last year for the available rooms on campus. We will do more.”
The college has recently completed plans for an additional 1,000 beds.
But, Fitzgerald said, “there are limitations”.
“Capital development takes time and investment. I have appealed to government to tackle the problem of under-funding of higher education. I have also appealed to government to look at measures that will help tackle the accommodation crises facing our students and I renew that call.”
