Councillor demands more student accommodation rather than plans to cut aspects of campus life

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

Cllr Ann Higgins has supported recent comments criticising proposals which would ask third level institutions to examine reducing the number of days students must be on campus to ease pressure on accommodation and commuting.

Senator Harmon, Labour spokesperson for further and higher education said this amounts to an admission of failure from Government when she commented, “The suggestion that colleges should reduce the number of days students are required on campus is a staggering admission that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed to get a grip on the student accommodation crisis. Instead of building the actual accommodation that is desperately needed, Government now appears to be considering cutting back the student experience. That is not a solution. It is a deflection.”

Supporting those sentiments Cllr Higgins hit out at the Government for being “out of touch” with regard the issue of student accommodation as she highlighted the challenges facing third level students.

“It appears to me that our students are part of what I call the ‘tolerated and overlooked’ cohort in this housing crisis. The fact is that they face a real battle year on year to get overpriced and sometimes poor-quality accommodation, they have to endure long and exhausting commutes, mostly in their cars due to the lack of investment in accessible and convenient public transport in this region, while some actually have to defer their education altogether.

“Third level students in Sligo and across the country are having to rely on the private market with a severe shortage in the amount of purpose built student accommodation, which has actually reduced locally over the last five years. After years of inaction, the government has created a situation where students are in direct competition with families and single people for private rented accommodation, whereas if the government had invested in this area, that would remove most of the student cohort from the private rental market and ease some of the pressures.

“Faced with an extreme shortage of accommodation, which has been flagged for many years, the government’s response to the university is ‘condense your timetable’. The fact that this is even a suggestion shows how out of touch the government is with the realities of third level education. It is simply not possible to curtail delivery while still meeting the learning outcomes of each specific programme. Outside of class time, there are individual and group projects which form an important part of the student learning experience, not to mention participation in campus life.

Cllr Higgins expressed the view that improved timetables and an early morning train in to Sligo would have a significant benefit for students.

“Given that that strategy includes a pilot project to examine how third-level institutions and the National Transport Authority (NTA) can liaise to align their timetables, from a local perspective hopefully this will put further pressure on NTA to deliver the much needed early morning commuter train from Longford to Sligo, which I will continue to advocate for.”

Cllr Higgins concluded by emphasising the need for Government to deliver accommodation for students saying, “‘I look forward to a revised strategy where the Government commits to a major programme of publicly built student accommodation, led by the State and delivered in partnership with our higher education institutions.

“Our students have worked so hard to get their university place, they now deserve a full and rounded education and university experience, not suggestions to reduce their timetable because Government has failed them. This government has to start delivering the accommodation our students need to learn, live and thrive. This might hopefully entice some to remain in the country after graduation, rather than creating another generation emigration.”

Article Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.