All foreign Master students are offered a choice between rooms in a student house and furnished accommodation in a space box. Little did this year’s students know that the construction of 102 space boxes would be delayed by months because housing corporation Vestide did not factor in a delay in construction due to the complaints procedure involved in obtaining a building permit.

A large group of new foreign Master students now have to stay months longer in housing which -while up to simple housing standards- is not really suitable for TU/e students. About sixty new students staying temporarily in cabins at Bospark ‘t Wolfsven in Mierlo have no Internet access at home. “This has made it hard for us to make the kind of serious start on our courses that we wanted”, says Evans Kaijage who is from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. “I once went and sat on those windy steps of the main building on a Saturday with my laptop just to look something up on the Internet. I’m glad the library is now open on Saturdays and Sundays. But for the last few months we have not had enough Internet access, even though we needed it for our courses.”

Sometimes students staying at Wolfsven end up spending up to 2.5 hours a day in travelling and waiting time to reach the university, even though the park is only 9.5 km from the TU/e. Their trip starts with a 15-minute walk to the bus stop. The bus ride is 35 minutes and buses arrive about every 15 minutes but do not stop when they are full. The bus service is less frequent in the evenings. Students pay 63 euros a month for a bus pass, but also get a 63-euro reduction on their rent which is financed by the TU/e.

Bike ride
The bike ride to the TU/e is about 45 minutes, but is hard for inexperienced cyclists who are used to driving on the left and have just arrived from the tropics. “Biking to the university is very tiring and cold, and it feels risky because we don’t know about the regulations for cyclists. There are none in India. So, most of us travel by bus. We are getting used to being late even when we try very hard to be on time”, says Arpit Sharma, recently arrived from New Delhi.

Another disadvantage to living at Wolfsven is the need to plan every shopping expedition, says Shrinidhi Nagesh, who is from Mangalore, India. Students on limited budgets cannot really afford to go to the store in the park and the number of stores in Mierlo are limited. Nagesh would rather shop at markets, he says.

Kaijage, Nagesh and Sharma are worried the move to campus in November will distract them from their studies, at a time when they need to concentrate on their first exams at the TU/e. The students are also worried about transporting their goods, which they have more of than when they arrived two months ago. “I hope we will be told the date we can move in well in advance so we can plan everything properly”, says Kaijage.

STU on the case
The International Relations Office (STU) says they are aware of the problems and are putting a lot of energy into finding solutions. Dutch students who leave for an internship abroad are asked to rent their accommodation to a foreign student during the time they are away. STU has found hundred extra rooms via the commercial housing market. A stay at Wolfsven is only organized if no other accommodation is available. According to STU, some students really appreciate living in the forested park and have asked to be allowed to stay longer. Also, STU is looking into realizing internet services at Wolfsven.

“We understand that students are dissatisfied about a number of matters”, says dr. Karen Ali, director of STU. “We have a big shortage of housing for our foreign guests due to the delayed construction of space boxes, caused by a difference of opinion between Vestide and the city. At the moment Vestide cannot keep up with the numbers of foreign students coming to the TU/e. As long as the city of Eindhoven does not make structural investments in the supply of furnished housing, the problems for foreign students and staff will continue to grow. It would be best if the housing corporations made plans to address this in cooperation with the city.”

“However, we can do little about public transport”, Ali continues. “Our information is that there are four buses an hour to Eindhoven from 6.30 a.m. The ten-km bike ride should not be too hard; students can wear extra clothes if they are cold. The TU/e has also invested in free bus passes for these students.”

According to Ali, the TU/e has also advised students about where to shop. “We advised them to shop at Albert Heijn in Geldrop, near the bus stop. There is also a Lidl in nearby Mierlo village, which has cheaper prices.”

STU promises to coordinate the move of the students in Wolfsven to the space boxes when they are completed. Possibly a bus will be hired to transport students’ possessions. They also promise to plan the moving date in such a way that students are disturbed as little as possible in the exam period./.