Students renting a room from LU Accommodation next term will get a contract with a three month notice period, instead of the current one month. According to the agency, this measure is necessary to reduce costs for the University.
“LU Accommodation has been founded to help international students at the beginning of the year, when it is very hard to find rooms”, Sara van Lunteren, head of LU Accommodation, explains.
“But many students use our rooms only for a very short period. Then they move to another place to share an apartment, or they have found housing with a lower rent. Later during the academic year, it is very hard to find someone to fill up the empty rooms. This is a financial problem for us.”
The University uses state money to maintain LU Accommodation. However, the state only finances research and education, not services as housing. So, any money lost on empty rooms could otherwise have been used for studies.
“We will never be able to make a profit with LU Accommodation and that is okay. As a university, we have decided that we want to provide this service. However, the amount of money that we lose with LU Accommodation has increased over the past years. We have to take measures now to attain a normal break-down,” says Sara van Lunteren.
She gives the example of LU Accommodation’s housing in Helsingborg, which has recently been abolished.
“We really wanted to provide international students in Helsingborg with a room as well. But unfortunately we lost too much money on that and have therefore terminated the contract recently.”
By extending the notice time to three months, students will stay at least somewhat longer and it will provide LU Accommodation with more time to find a new tenant.
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