Untitled Document
Desperately Seeking Housing
Housing problems among foreign Ph.D. students are reaching
record levels. New Ph.D. students are having even more trouble
than usual finding a place to live after their limited time in
the Fellowtel or other temporary BIA housing. Housing organisation
HHvl has promised to try to find apartments for the most urgent
cases in September.
"Finding an apartment or a
room is extremely frustrating and time-consuming", says Lopamudra
Devi M.Sc., who arrived from Bombay last year to join the Environmental
Technology group at Chemical Engineering. "Half of my mind
is constantly preoccupied with my housing problem. I never knew
I'd have to put so much effort into finding a place to live, or
that I would probably end up paying at least half my income in
rent. And it's not just me, all my colleagues are facing similar
situations. One Chinese colleague has already had two landladies
in only a few months."
Disadvantage
"We've done everything we can to address these difficulties.
I honestly can't think of anything more we can do", says
drs. Leo Robben of BIA. "We've seen this coming for years.
A structural solution is needed. Ph.D. students want reasonably
priced housing not too far from TU/e. There are plenty of other
people in Eindhoven who want the same, so foreign Ph.D. students
with limited budgets are at a disadvantage."
"In my opinion, TU/e should either make funds available to
tackle this problem or give up some of its internationalisation
goals. Internationalisation costs money and is labour-intensive.
It's not right to recruit foreign Ph.D. students and leave them
high and dry when it comes to housing."
Executive Board member ir. Harry Roumen says he wasn't aware that
housing problems had become so urgent. "I thought things
had improved in the last few years. It's possible that the time
limit on BIA housing has made the existing shortages more visible.
Previously the people with the problems were the ones just arriving
in Eindhoven. But I will say that we acknowledge the difficulties
and know that they will certainly increase if nothing is done."
Apartment Complex
TU/e announced plans for a student hostel/hotel on or near campus
earlier this year. Also, student housing corporation Vestide is
now working with HHvL, a larger housing organisation in Eindhoven,
to solve some of the problems in student housing, specifically
those concerning temporary housing for foreigners. The first talks
with HHvL took place last week. Representatives of Philips and
Fontys were also present, these organisations have the same problems
with temporary housing of foreign staff/students.
TU/e's real estate manager dr.ir. Karin Overdijk says she expects
HHvL to offer a limited amount of housing as early as September.
This organisation is also planning the renovation of a large apartment
complex in the city centre where foreign students and staff may
find temporary housing in future. "HHvL has promised to start
freeing up apartments suitable for our foreign staff in this complex",
says Overdijk. "We are working on both short-term and long-term
solutions. We need housing, but we also need facilities to make
it possible for our people to access the TU/e network from home."
Zacharia Masende M.Sc. from Tanzania found a small studio after
a year of continual searching for a place to live. "It's
extremely expensive, I had to pay a commission and extra rent.
All in all I've spent a lot of time on activities this past year
which do not contribute to my work."
Extension
Lopamudra Devi: "I've received an extension from Fellowtel
until July. I'm looking for a room in a student house or an apartment.
Whatever I can get that's not too far away. I'm learning Dutch,
but I'm not good enough to communicate properly. So I've been
finding out the hard way how the housing system here works. Although
my Dutch colleague Mark Prins has been putting a lot of effort
into helping me with this."
"Once, I thought I'd found something reasonable, but the
landlord wouldn't give me a contract. I need an official contract
to be able to register at the town hall, which I have to do to
keep my visa. Other times I've had to compete with fifteen others
who were also interested. I can imagine Dutch landlords would
rather rent to their own countrymen, in India it's the same."
"I think TU/e should take more responsibility for housing
foreign Ph.D. students and post-docs. If only because performance
goes down if you have to keep changing appartments every few months.
As researchers, we need peaceful place to live."/.
Lopamudra Devi, not quite out on the street.
Photo: Bram Saeys
