It’s time to take responsibility, Hoel!
It’s time to take responsibility, Hoel!
Submitted my Mikkel Sibe, member of Akershus FpU
Higher Education Minister Oddmund Hoel from the Norwegian Centre Party speaks warmly about the need to build more student housing. However, action seem absent on the long and broad horizon. It is therefore worth questioning whether today’s government actually has a plan, for student housing and higher education as a whole, or if they’re just coming with one empty promise after another.
The problem of the current government is that they keep offering words and little action. They speak warmly about solving the student housing crisis, while students have to start their term in shared dormitories.
Because, while FrP (the Progress Party) was in government, nearly 11 000 new student housing units were built. In the first four years alone, approximately 7400 units were built. Meanwhile, the current government has, in almost a full parliamentary term, only built about 3300. This is far fewer than necessary, leading to crisis situations in the student welfare organisations, who now have to resort to shared dormitories to meet the housing demand. It is an insult to the country’s new students, many of whom have looked forward to taking on new challenges, living safely in student housing where the opportunities to study without distractions are many, only to be met with shared dormitories.
FrP has also consistently supported temporary housing solutions for students, to accommodate new students all over the country. However, temporary housing solutions do not mean shared dormitories and insecurity, nor do they mean hotel accommodations, which the current government has forced student welfare organisations to consider. Instead, this means temporary housing solutions with a guarantee of permanent student housing when one becomes available.
And we in FrP have several solutions to address the student housing crisis. Not only do we want to increase the financial aid for students to 1,5 G, something we have repeatedly campaigned for to improve the student’s purchasing power and quality of life during their studies. We also want to set requirements for private landlords, so that they, after a set standard, can contribute to building student housing and make renting in the private market more attractive. Unlike the left, which seemingly despises the private sector, our solutions will help ensure that more students not only have more spending power but also that all students who need it have a good place to live from the start to the end of their studies.
FrP is committed to students because we understand that the doctors, lawyers, and teachers of tomorrow aren’t made in shared dormitories, nor under housing or financial stress. We want to provide students with predictability during their studies so they can focus on their education, rather than stressing about whether they have roof over their heads or food on the table. The private market is ready to contribute, and if we as politicians set the framework, we can ensure good living conditions in the private sector. Let private providers participate so that fewer are left without housing. We understand this, unlike the current government.
There will always be demand of student housing as long as we have students in this country. But the fact that the student welfare organisations now have to resort to dormitories to make ends meet is an insult to students across the country. The current government is making a mockery out of higher education. It’s time for the government to stop using just words and actually take concrete action.
