The University of Limerick’s plans to recruit 4,000 more students in the next five years - despite the fact there aren’t enough beds in the city for the current crop of students.
Limerick’s escalating housing crisis - particularly bad in Castletroy, a suburb known as ‘Studentville’ - is forcing many students to travel up to three hours a day to class, commuting from places as far afield as Mayo, Tralee, Kildare and Kilkenny.
It’s been reported some students are even checking into AirBnB properties a couple of nights a week to ease their daily commuting hell.
And students in digs are also feeling the strain - with the cost of on-campus student digs up 6.2 per cent from €4998 for a room in an 8-bed home last year to €5292 now.
And yesterday UL’s President Dr Des Fitzgerald and Mary Harney unveiled UL@50, the university’s ambitious five-year-strategy - with no mention of housing for students.
Under the plan an extra 4000 students - mainly internationals and postgrads - will be recruited in the next five years, with up to 8000 more ‘in the following years’. 330 new jobs will also be created, Dr Fitzgerald told the launch on the site of the planned new UL CIty Campus - the old Dunnes Stores.
Mary Harney, university chancellor, said the 50th anniversary of UL’s foundation in 2022 “spurred the university to greater ambition”.
Dr Fitzgerald said staff numbers would increase to 1,930 ‘to support the rising student numbers’.
But their ambitions on the housing front wasn’t so clear.
There was little mention of where the thousands of new students or teachers will live - in a city in the firm grip of a major housing shortage.
A UL spokesman said: “Part of the capital development plan over the course of the five-year strategy launched today will include increasing accommodation for students.
“University of Limerick takes the accommodation of its students very seriously. It has responded to the growing demand for accommodation this year by increasing the available off-campus offering and encouraging local property owners and landlords to advertise vacant rooms via the UL website.
“This is a short-term measure and it will continue. In the longer term, UL is looking at options to further grow on-campus accommodation for students.
When asked by the Irish Mirror, UL said it had no figures on the numbers of beds that will be added or where they will be.
The spokesman said there was ‘a significant take-up’ of private landlords taking in students as a result of UL’s push - but again no figures were available.
The full university campus masterplan will be launched later this year.
