State cannot be ‘agnostic’ on rent in new student accommodation, Harris says

The State cannot be “agnostic” on how much rent students are charged in any new accommodation built by universities with the help of public funding, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has said.

The Government was finalising plans to “unstick” several student accommodation projects where universities had planning permission but work had not yet started, he told the Oireachtas committee on education on Wednesday.

Mr Harris said the proposals would see the State contribute to the significant costs facing universities to build campus accommodation.

The Minister said that where public funding was provided to universities, the State would not be “agnostic” or “silent” on the rental costs for students when it was finished.

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Mr Harris said “too many students” had faced serious difficulty finding accommodation by the start of the college term this September. He said the State planned to play a bigger role contributing to help colleges meet the costs of building accommodation.

Officials were finalising plans to get a number of student housing projects with planning permission where work had not begun “unstuck”, he said. “The first thing we need to do is look at the universities that have planning permission and get building,” he said.

At present, five universities had unused planning permission for student housing projects, which he said could deliver a “significant number of beds” in the coming years.

The plans would be discussed at a Cabinet housing sub-committee meeting this month, ahead of a proposal being brought to Cabinet for approval, he said. “We can’t give over taxpayers money and be silent on the issue of affordability,” he told the committee.

The proposal to provide State funding to universities for housing would likely be done on a “project by project” basis, in cases where beforehand it had not been “viable” for universities to build the accommodation, he said.

Mr Harris encouraged students who still did not have accommodation for college to consider the “digs” option of renting a room in a home.

The Minister also announced details of a review of supports for PhD students that would be carried out over the coming months.

The scope of the review would look at what supports are provided to PhD candidates, as well as whether they should be seen as employees or students in universities. The review was expected to be completed by early 2023, he told the committee.