ReportThroughout the country, the offer is largely undersized compared to the demand. At the University of Maastricht, foreign students, more and more numerous, are bearing the brunt of this crisis.
In Randwyck, a district in the south-east of Maastricht (Netherlands), 252 housing units in prefabricated buildings stand at the end of a huge car park. Laura, a Franco-Dutch student in European law at the city’s university and whose parents live in The Hague, is one of the lucky people who have been able to settle there. Before packing your bags in this place – which the locals call “containers” –, she had a real obstacle course. “I arrived in August and couldn’t find any ads on Facebook groups. I was able to stay temporarily in some sort of hotel for students, but it was very expensive. Seven hundred euros a month. Then, after a few months, a friend found me a place here. Fortunately because, without that, I would have returned to The Hague and I would have taken four hours by train a day. »
For students arriving in Maastricht, it’s an immediate hassle. From August to October, the city at the southern tip of the Netherlands, like other university towns in the country, experiences a period of intense tension in its rental market. Housing is too few to absorb the influx. This situation is getting worse as the number of foreign students increases in the Netherlands. In Maastricht, the university had 16,950 students in 2017. There are now 22,219, including 12,607 foreigners.
Sometimes unscrupulous owners
At the height of the crisis, in September, students opted for train journeys from Liège, in Belgium, or from Aix-la-Chapelle, in Germany, or even from Brussels or Cologne, two cities located more than a hundred kilometers away. Others have simply taken the online courses, authorized on an exceptional basis as a temporary solution to the housing crisis. Brexit has increased the international appeal of the Netherlands. Those who dreamed of England are now falling back on the Dutch solution when they are put off by the cost and administrative complexity involved in registering in prestigious establishments across the Channel. In the Netherlands, students looking for international experience are attracted by the quality of education, provided almost exclusively in English. They also come to Maastricht for the living environment. The cobbled streets, the medieval architecture, the cozy little bars and even, sometimes, the coffee-shops of the city center.
“When you arrive, you have no choice. You have to throw yourself into some bad stuff” Antoine, Belgian student
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