Half of displaced higher education students live in rooms without a rental contract and without the chance to access financial support, according to a national study, which also estimates that they spend around 1,000 euros per month to study.
Last year, a team of researchers interviewed thousands of students from higher education institutions located in the Lisbon and Porto regions and found that, among displaced students, 48% do not have a formal lease contract and 51% say that the landlord does not issue rent receipts.
Four out of every 10 students live far from home and therefore need to rent a space. Without contracts, these students are unable to access support such as accommodation supplementsleaving it in a “situation of great vulnerability”, warns the study “Cartography and socioeconomic dynamics of higher education students in Greater Porto and Greater Lisbon”, published by .
Students studying far from home can spend €1,000
A student studying far from home can easily represent a cost to the family of thousand euros per month, with the largest portion being used to pay for accommodationresearcher Maria José Sá and one of the authors of the study told Lusa.
Most students pay between 200 and 400 euros in monthly rent, but there are those who spend 600 euros on housing, said the specialist, lamenting that few are lucky enough to get a room in a university residence at affordable prices.
“University residences are unable to respond to the number of student requests, which are first allocated to scholarship students”, explained Maria José Sá, in an interview with Lusa.
Beds in university residences have been increasing, but remain insufficient, as only 3% of students who compete for a place get a place. Result: The remaining students have to be subject to “renting rooms at very high costs”, highlights the study.
Then there are food costs, with the majority spending between 50 and 110 euros, but there are also a considerable number of students who spend more than 170 euros, especially displaced people and foreigners.
As the majority live close to schools, transport costs have little representation, with public transport being the most used means.
However, these costs still need to be accounted for water, electricity or internet bills and, all in all, it is normal to have monthly bills “reaching close to a thousand euros”, warned the researcher.
“A family that has two children studying in higher education becomes unsustainable”, especially because families continue to be the ones who pay the most the bills.
Two out of three students (66.5%) depend financially on their families to attend higher education, with scholarships being the second main source of financing, considered insufficient to meet the needs of the displaced student population, according to the study.
“Many landlords do not issue receipts and therefore students cannot access support such as additional accommodation”, highlighted Alberto Amaral, scientific coordinator of the Edulog Advisory Board.
Therefore, the researchers recommend speeding up the university housing program so that many more rooms are made available at affordable prices.
In addition to creating more subsidized accommodation, the researchers recommend a increase in scholarships and review of eligibility criteriaaccording to the study developed as part of a research project by the Center for Research on Higher Education Policies (CIPES), supported by Edulog, the think tank for Education of the Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation.
The researchers also recommend increasing state funding for HEIs and direct funding to students.
Maria José Sá highlighted that the study portrays the reality of the Lisbon and Porto regions, where the majority of higher education institutions are located and more than half of the students studying higher education, and that in the rest of the country the scenario will be different.
