‘The current contract for exchange students only runs through 31 January, even though the first semester will not be over until 3 February’, writes Lijst Calimero in their newsletter. ‘Exchange students will have to relocate to hotel rooms during their exams to make room for the incoming students who will arrive on 1 February.’
The Board of Directors is reportedly assessing the situation together with SSH. But SSH Groningen’s manager, Jolien Stokroos, says that there is nothing that the company can do to change this. ‘This has to do with the agenda for the academic year, and that is not our responsibility. We were also not the ones who determined the rental periods – the academic institutions do that themselves.’
Timing
This is not the first timing overlap issue for SSH this year. In January, it was the incoming students who were out of luck: tenants from the first semester could stay in their rooms until 31 January, but new students were expected to be in Groningen by January 28th for the welcome ceremony. The welcome ceremony for the 2017 spring semester will be held on 1 February.
In September, a work group of representatives of the RUG, the municipality, SSH, the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Lefier, Grobos, Contractus and GSb met to discuss international student housing. However, it was not timing that was being discussed at the meeting, but rather how to ensure that there are enough rooms of adequate quality for the ever growing foreign student population in Groningen.
Remedial act
Due to changes to national law, SSH has been unable to acquire new rooms this year, but Minister for Housing and the Central Government Sector Stef Blok is reportedly preparing a remedial act to make cooperation possible once more: the act is still pending passage in both houses of government and would only come into effect in 2017.
There is one project that SSH should be able to deliver on in 2017: De Trefkoel, an apartment complex with 445 rooms and 20 studios near the Zernike campus, is scheduled for completion next year.
During the meeting, the working group also discussed plans to create an English-language website to inform incoming students about housing. It is estimated that there are roughly 150 foreign students between the RUG and Hanze who were still in search of a room in Groningen.
UPDATE: Monday, 11:17 a.m.
RUG spokesperson Riepko Buikema says that the RUG is taking this problem seriously. ‘We are seeking ways to make the transition for incoming and outgoing students as smooth as possible. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid the fact that exchange students who have exams or resits in the last three days of the semester will have to find alternative accommodations.’