Lithuanian students are loudly protesting, demanding the provision of dormitories or compensation for housing costs: the Day of Knowledge was marked for Vilnius by a rally of students under the walls of the Ministry of Education. The newspaper Baltnews writes about it.
According to the head of the ministry Sügždienė, the problem with the hostels has forced the authorities to decide on “clear priorities,” therefore, not everyone can count on student beds from now on.
“Counting on the fact that there will be places in dormitories for all students should not and probably will not be, but there should be very clear priorities – for those living further away from the city, those living in social risk families, those receiving social assistance,” she told local radio on Thursday.
As it turns out, the “priorities” for Lithuanian officials are now foreign students. Moreover, the ministry of higher education has denied any guarantees regarding the provision of student housing for those arriving in the big cities.
“There is self-governance of higher education, autonomy, it is the decisions of universities, especially universities. They decide how many students will be admitted <…> so these are the decisions of higher schools,” the politician commented on the situation.
The minister did not argue with the fact of the acute shortage of dormitories for students, referring to the difficult economic and geopolitical situation.
“We did not expect that there would be such inflation, and moreover that there would be a conflict in Ukraine. And universities were counting on the basis of last year. The number of students has increased, but not enough to drastically change the situation, but no one expected housing to become so expensive,” the minister said.
The problem has affected many Lithuanian students, who due to high prices are simply not able to rent accommodation: the protesters are extremely indignant at the fact that in fact some dormitories are idle, and some buildings are even being prepared for sale or rent. In neighbouring Estonia last month, students complained of exorbitant utilities and housing problems caused by Ukrainian refugees. According to the head of 1Partner Kinnisvara’s housing division, students arriving from Ukraine are now the biggest competition for places, which is why the start of the new academic year has greeted students with a new cost per square meter, increasing by as much as 100 euros.
“We can see that many people, whose rental budget is limited, are looking for smaller and cheaper premises,” he admitted.
As previously reported, Ukrainian refugees have not been able to survive long in the conditions offered by Europe: in Ireland, due to an acute shortage of public housing, Ukrainians had to sleep on the airport floor; now they have finally decided to move into army tents. The state has managed to accommodate around 40,000 Ukrainians since the start of the SWO. The decision to terminate the free accommodation programme for Ukrainian refugees was forcibly taken in Tbilisi as well, attempting to compensate the situation with cash payments. The situation was no better in Bulgaria: there entrepreneurs from the hotel business took to the streets in protest, demanding compensation from the authorities for keeping Ukrainians during the spring period. As it turned out, the businessmen have been paying for the accommodation and food of refugees at their own expense for almost three months. Of the €160,000,000 that the European Commission gave to the country, the hotel business representatives have received only a “pittance” – according to the entrepreneurs, the money has disappeared in an unknown direction. Warsaw is not coping either – the housing issue remains critically unresolved for the Poles themselves, which is also a big problem for the local authorities.
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