International students can lose housing guarantee

– A change made in the guarantee principle will be a remarkable hindrance for international students when it comes to getting higher education in Norway, claims George Vlazakis, the president of International Students Union (ISU).

Vlazakis thinks a prospective removal of the housing guarantee will make the Norwegian student environment less attractive for international students, since the guarantee has always been one of the most important factors as to securing student mobility.

– Every relevant decision concerning this matter should therefore be carefully considered. All involved will have to be consulted, he says.

The leader of the Welfare Council Mari Berdal Djupvik does not necessarily disagree with this.

– For a long time, international students in Oslo have been guaranteed housing, and before changing this arrangement we will need to have a proper debate, she says.

Trondheim as the ideal

Katrine Paulsen from the BI section wants the Welfare Council to regard the possibilities of looking to the private rental market.

– Possibly, Oslo could follow Trondheim´s example. In Trondheim there is a maximum of 30 percent for the housing guarantee, and the foundation for student life collaborates with the private rental market to get hold of enough housing units for the international students, says Paulsen.

Leader of the board of Studentskipnaden i Trondheim (SiT) Torun Hegre says that the board chose to introduce a maximum on the housing guarantee in 2007.

– The Welfare Council in Trondheim wanted to elevate the debate about international students and student housing by sending a signal to the institutions of education, showing that it is not SiT´s responsibility alone to provide housing for all the incoming students, says Hegre.

Hegre says that they do not have a direct collaboration with the private rental market.

– In Trondheim there is an agency called Studentbolighjelpen, where students help other students with, among other things, public viewings of apartments during summer, translation of advertisements and other things that new students think about, says Hegre.

Struggles alone

The Student Welfare Organisation in Bergen (SiB) are behind a similar arrangement as in Oslo, operating with one hundred per cent housing guarantee for all international students.

– We have, in total, 3350 lodging units, and last November international students inhabited 45 percent of these. We have discussed the possibility of introducing a maximum, but we haven´t reached a final decision yet, says leader of SiB Edwin Ebbenson Forstrøm.

The Welfare Council thinks the existing housing guarantee is a pillow for the University of Oslo in the struggle for more student housing units.

– It is important to send a signal to the University of Oslo, saying that if we want to maintain this guarantee, we have to simultaneously work for more housing units. Today it mostly feels like we´re struggling alone, says Djupvik.