Every college in the country has raised the price of its student accommodation for the coming year, the Irish Independent today reported.
Last week, The University Times revealed that over 93 per cent of student accommodation built in Dublin since 2016 costs upwards of €800 a month.
Today, the Independent reports that University College Cork (UCC) has raised the cost of its student accommodation by 11.5 per cent since last year, while Trinity student rent has gone up by almost 6 per cent. A room in the College’s Goldsmith Hall costs €389 more than last year.
In a statement to the Independent, a Trinity spokesperson said the rent increases were approved at a meeting of the College’s Finance Committee in May 2017.
“We are committed to providing our students with high-quality, safe and affordable accommodation and associated services, and the increases in rent reflect the cost of upkeep and the expense of providing utilities”, the spokesperson said.
Speaking to The University Times, Lorna Fitzpatrick, the President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), said that “students are being used to fund the system as a result of government inaction in the higher education sector.”
“The issues are so linked that you can’t speak about the accommodation crisis, especially for on-campus student accommodation, without speaking about the funding crisis affecting universities”, she said.
A UCC spokesperson told the Irish Independent that the rent increases were the result of refurbishment that was carried out to the college’s on-campus student accommodation.
In the University of Limerick (UL), the price of some student accommodation has increased by 6.2 per cent, while Dublin City University (DCU) raised its accommodation costs by nearly 5 per cent.
University College Dublin (UCD), the Independent reports, sees the lowest rent increases at 2.7 per cent. But The University Times reported last week that a room in UCD’s new Ashfield complex costs around €980 per month.
For students in UCC, the increase – which will see the cost of a room in the college’s Mardyke Hall accommodation complex rising from €5,439 to €6,068 in just a year – will likely hit incoming students particularly hard, given the capitation fee increase scheduled to affect first years from next year.
UCC’s capitation fee looks set to rise by over 50 per cent in the next four years. This year, incoming first years will pay €250 – up from €170 last year. The cost will rise to €370 per year by 2023.
UCC students staged a sit-in protest outside the offices of the university’s president in June. University College Cork Students’ Union (UCCSU) is calling for the issue to be put to a student referendum.
