Many Dutch institutions for higher education offer the room guarantee, subject to a special clause: the student is obliged to leave the room after a year. Hence the term ‘short stay accommodation’. Thanks to the clause, rooms become available every year for new foreign students.

However, this clause turns out not to be watertight. Earlier this year the subdistrict court found that an Iranian PhD candidate can stay on in his ‘short stay accommodation’ for the full length of his three-year job with the Amsterdam Medical Center (AMC). Even though the consequences of this judgment have yet to become fully clear, Transfer Magazine announces that certain universities are already resorting to ‘drastic measures’. “We are not offering any rooms within the short stay accommodation context to foreign students who intend to study here for more than two years”, says head of student affairs Frank van Kampen from the University of Amsterdam to the news site. “I’m greatly concerned about the future of the accommodation of international students.” Delft University of Technology is considering putting up only students coming over for one or two semesters in the ‘short stay’.

According to the Kenniscentrum Studentenhuisvesting (Kences; Knowledge Center for Student Accommodation) an amendment of the law may be required, although director Vincent Buitenhuis points out that the decision specifically concerns a PhD candidate with an employment contract: “The court has weighed this in its decision. It is not certain whether this applies to all foreign students.” (TJ)/.