One of the features of being a final year student has always been to live on campus. Allegedly, that is because in fourth year one should be able to focus on their studies, without worrying about endless commutes, or rent prices with eight flatmates. For this year, though, as of September 28th, out of the 3,258 applications only 779 rooms have been allocated (this number includes all rooms allocated to students who are not Foundation Scholars, as reported by a spokesperson). This means that less than 24 per cent of applicants got a room on campus. On September 7th, an email was issued that all places on campus accommodation were full.
This year, the Accommodation Office issued outcome emails only on June 18th; last year, as a spokesperson reported, they were issued on May 8th. The late release of outcomes made it very difficult for students to organise themselves elsewhere, as many were dependent on campus accommodation. Even more so, as the University Times reported on July 6th, that many applications processed through the Disability Office were unsuccessful. To those whose first round was unsuccessful, the Accommodation Office said it was either to join the waiting list or to seek for private accommodation. For those who did join the waiting list, new rooms have been allocated with more than a month of distance between each other: first at the end of July, and then beginning of September. For most, if not the whole summer, students who did not receive a first-round offer have been left in the dark and dependent on a response from College.
But what most left students puzzled was the change in the application process. While in previous years applicants had to fill out a form describing their involvement in campus life, this year no form was required to apply. All a student had to do was submit their name, student number, their preferred Residence and whether they wanted to be flatmates with a specific person. A spokesperson said that there was no change in whoever manages Campus Accommodation (the Junior Dean remains responsible), and there was no change in the system. Although, taking out of the application process the only personal input students had available to make their case on having a room on campus seems quite a change. As of now, students have no explanation how they were picked or not for a room on campus. If there is a criterion behind the discernment process, it is not apparent at all. If rooms were mostly allocated randomly, as so it seems, not only the Accommodation office did not help out students in seeking accommodation, but it put them in great difficulty.
It is no secret that there is a general housing crisis in Ireland that makes renting a place awfully onerous both economically and mentally. To those who resulted ‘unsuccessful’ in the first round, the Accommodation office suggested, as private accommodation, Kavanagh Court, at the modest price of 325 euros per week, for 38 weeks. 325 euros a week equals around 1,300 a month, which is the average price of a Yugo accommodation, and barely the revenue of a weekly 25-hour job at minimum wage, excluding groceries and any form of social life. The most expensive campus accommodation, as reported on the 2025–2026 residential charges, is a Double/King Room on Printing House Square, which monthly amounts to around 1,100 euros. The least expensive is a room on Pearse Street, which amounts to less than 800 monthly euros.
Living on campus saves between a hundred and five hundred euros a month in rent. A Yugo accommodation is not a viable option for many, and proposing one in a campus rejection email is out of touch with most students’ needs and possibilities. Non-student accommodation can be cheaper, but often in dire conditions. The Instagram page rent_dublin, for example, advertises rooms that cost less than a thousand euros; but that is because they are often twin rooms, far from College, and in shared accommodations. For most, the hope to have a room (forget even a bathroom) for oneself without paying a thousand euros a month ends at campus accommodation.
Moreover, this year, many international students have complained about how, apparently, the (implicit?) criterion for which international students are favoured to get a room on campus has not been followed. While of course it would be difficult to ask someone from Galway to commute every day, it is not possible at all to ask an international student from Continental Europe or from even another continent to commute every day. For some home students, there could be a last-resort possibility to stay over at a friend’s, or a relative, living in or closer to Dublin; or, for example, it has been the case for landlords to require Irish guarantors before renting out a room to someone. For an international student first arriving in Ireland, having left their connections behind, all of these options are not a viable option at all. In this, College has completely failed to sustain its students, leaving them at their own devices.
On June 15th, only three days before the first round of accommodation offers, district.ie published an article stating that, in the year 2024/2025, at least 346 higher education students reported to their institutions to be homeless. This number is bound to be bigger than that, as many institutions do not keep any data on this situation. Trinity is amongst these.
Now the year is in full swing, and there is little to be done about accommodation. But there will be a next year: hopefully, if one cannot obtain a room on campus (it is true that, objectively, we can’t all live on campus) one can at least gain a logical, clear process of room allocation, and have, from College, a proper support; which, this year, has awfully lacked.
