All the Housing Office’s 1,450 student beds and around 65 for PhD students are spoken for, even though there were more rooms available than last year. ‘It’s not unusual’, says Jeroen Boonstra of the Housing Office. ‘Every year we see a peak in September, but as of February we have a lot of empty beds and that costs us a lot of money.’

The Housing Office cut 75 rooms in the Antillenstraat from their list because they had become too expensive for international students. However, 54 rooms on the cruise ship Arlene, 30 rooms in houses scattered across De Wijert and extra rooms in the Blue Building (Selwerd I) and the Hofstedede de Grootkade made up for that loss. The Arlene is a temporary measure, though, as it sails again in January.

Win-win situation

Also, the Housing Office made more rooms available for selected PhD students at the Hofstede de Grootkade: 23 single-room apartments and 13 apartments for couples. This is in addition to apartments in the Kraanvogelstraat that became available last year.

The rooms are not cheap (from €682 to €1,032 a month), but the University contributes to the rent, which brings the actual cost down to €282 and €316. ‘It’s a win-win situation’, says Boonstra. ‘The University wants to attract more international bursary PhD students, but it’s hard for them to find accommodation from abroad.’