University of Limerick is planning to house 750 students in response to accommodation crisis

Colleges across the country have been “severely affected” by a lack of off-campus student options in recent years, UL provost professor Shane Kilcommins said, with officials actively encouraging homeowners with vacant rooms to consider renting them to students.

He said government requests for more college places “must be matched by the provision of appropriate infrastructure for teaching, learning, research and indeed living”.

UL is working on two separate plans aimed at boosting student housing in the next three years.

One plan proposes asking developers or investors to build student accommodation on lands it owns or adjacent to its campus. It said the accommodation could be sold to UL or leased on a long-term basis.

It wants at least 250 students to be accommodated by the plan but a site suitable for a high-rise, high-density, development capable of housing 750 students has already been identified, subject to planning permission.

A second proposal put forward by UL includes plans for up to 500 students to be housed in a new scheme within 2.5km of its campus. Parties interested in this second proposal are being told “it is a distinct advantage” if appropriate planning permission is already in place.

The university would like to see the schemes delivered in the next two-and-a-half to three years.

UL will seek funding from the Government and elsewhere if suitable sites for the new units are identified.

Prof Kilcommins and the Irish Universities Association (IUA) this weekend called on the Government to do more to relieve pressures in the sector.

“The current student accommodation crisis cannot solely be resolved by higher education institutions,” Prof Kilcommins said.

“There needs to be a multi-stakeholder approach, supported by government, to ensure third-level students are adequately and appropriately accommodated.”

An Irish Universities Association (IUA) spokeswoman said the housing crisis “has led to more students having to commute unacceptably long distances to college and to students having to work excessively long hours in part-time jobs to pay for accommodation.”

Some universities have had to delay plans to develop new accommodation units because of rising construction costs.

She said “more needs to be done in a shorter timeframe” to address these costs and the resulting rents.

Further Education Minister Simon Harris is expected to unveil plans this week for technological universities and institutes of technology (ITs) to build student accommodation on their campuses for the first time.

Campuses at the South East, Munster, Shannon, Dundalk and Dublin are included in the plans.

The Atlantic Technological University, where concern arose last week after a private operator offered student accommodation to the Department of Integration for refugees, is also included in the plans which could deliver hundreds of units at campuses across the country.

An initial phase of the plan will establish the demand in each area before construction plans are developed.

A government campaign is also being planned to promote and encourage the use of digs.

The IUA said the Department of Further and Higher Education is working with some of its members to part-fund the development of accommodation in exchange for lower rents.