Hard work for students renting accommodation
September, when universities, colleges and vocational schools enter the admission season, is also the time when new students scramble to find accommodation. The large number of students, most of whom are from remote districts and out of town, while the number of dormitories is small, has created great pressure on accommodation and boarding houses during each admission season. Only a few lucky students find suitable boarding houses...
(Baonghean.vn)September, when universities, colleges and vocational schools enter the admission season, is also the time when new students scramble to find accommodation. The large number of students, most of whom are from remote districts and out of town, while the number of dormitories is small, has created great pressure on accommodation and boarding houses during each admission season. Only a few lucky students find suitable boarding houses...
As the school year is approaching, new student Ngo Thi Oanh (Faculty of Law - Vinh University) and her father traveled to Vinh to find a room to rent, settle down, and begin 4 years of university.
After a whole day of wandering through alleys near Vinh University, Oanh and her father still couldn't find a satisfactory room. "The rooms that are okay are expensive. The affordable rooms are shabby and damp. A rural family is already "sweating" to pay for their child's tuition, now with the added expense of renting a room this expensive, I don't know if we can survive..." Ngo Van Lam, Oanh's father, shared.
Only 5% of university and college students in the province are able to stay in dormitories (photo taken at Vinh University of Technology and Education dormitory).
Not only Oanh but thousands of students in the admission season also have the same situation. In Vinh City, there are currently 3 universities, 1 university branch, 10 colleges, along with many professional high schools, vocational training centers with tens of thousands of students, most of whom have to stay in dormitories.
Of these, Vinh University has the largest number of students (about 36,000 students), but the school's dormitory only meets about 5% of the students' accommodation needs, the remaining 95% of students have to rent accommodation in areas surrounding the school.
Mr. Le Cong Duc - Deputy Head of Student Affairs Department of Vinh University said: "The university's dormitory area has 1,500 seats, mainly for Laotian students, students of the National Defense Education Faculty, those from families with preferential policies, children of poor households... The rest of the students have to take care of their own food and accommodation."
Vinh University of Technology and Education has 13,000 students, but the dormitory can only accommodate 500. The remaining 12,000 students are temporarily residing in Hung Dung, Hung Loc, and Truong Thi wards.
In response to the need for student accommodation, people in the vicinity of universities and colleges have built rental accommodation of all types, from affordable to high-end.
The student guesthouse on Bach Lieu Street has 6 floors, the rooms here are about 15m2 wide, with closed ancillary works, priced from 1.1 - 1.6 million/2 people/month. Guesthouse T50 (QK4), with a ground-floor house, 17m2 wide, priced from 1-1.5 million/2 people/month. If students have a need, the Guesthouse rents out hotel rooms priced from 2.5-3 million VND/2 people/month.
Cheap, affordable housing areas are either very far from school, or very shabby and dilapidated. With 700,000 - 800,000 VND, students can only rent a room of about 8 square meters, with 7-10 rooms/block but only sharing one bathroom and one toilet. It is worth mentioning that these types of boarding houses are mostly damp, roofed with asbestos cement, leaky in the rain, hot in the sun, cramped and do not ensure a space for living and studying. Not to mention the situation where boarding houses often "suddenly increase in price" during peak periods of school admission, after Tet... causing many difficulties for students.
Besides, students renting houses also suffer from the price of electricity and water, although the State has clearly regulated the price of electricity and water applicable to students renting houses.
According to the retail electricity price list for domestic use (issued on February 25, 2011), the highest price is 1,962 VND/KWh and the water price is 4,500 VND/m3 (issued on June 2, 2009). However, the electricity and water prices in boarding houses are double or triple the current price. Boarding house owners set their own electricity and water prices and collect them "indiscriminately". Generally, boarding house owners collect water fees per person, from 25,000 to 35,000 VND/month per person. Boarding houses that collect water fees for rooms based on meter readings have prices of 7,000-12,000 VND/m3 (2-3 times higher than the price issued by the State), the electricity price is 2.5-3 thousand VND/kWh, in some places, it is up to 5 thousand VND/kWh.
Student Nguyen Xuan Hoa, who rents a room in Hung Dung ward, said: "Here, the landlord collects water fees per person, 30,000 VND/person per month, but the regulation states that tap water is only used for cooking, while bathing and laundry use well water. The electricity bill is 4,500 VND/KWh. We know it is higher than the regulation, but we don't know who to complain to?"
Mr. Pham Van Nga - Director of Vinh City Electricity, said: "For those who bring temporary residence registration of students to the branch, we will do the procedures for these students to use electricity at the ladder price. Periodically, we check whether the number of registrations is correct or not. Based on that, we manage the number of meters and collect money according to the bill. If the electricity price that the landlords charge students is higher than the regulated price, the branch has no authority to handle it."
Considered the education and training center of the North Central region, attracting students from 39 provinces and cities to study, the demand for student accommodation is very large. To reduce the burden of accommodation and living for students, it is thought that all levels and functional sectors need to speed up the construction of dormitories and expand the planning of student villages. On the other hand, for private boarding houses, all levels and sectors need to strengthen the management of electricity and water prices, and put an end to the current situation of turning students into objects of profit.
Virtue
