Long waiting lines at the registration desks for master’s students last month. Photo: Guy Ackermans
‘Many more students arrived this academic year than the university initially predicted,’ says Deenen. ‘This doesn’t immediately create a problem, but if we get another increase like this next year, there will certainly be a shortage of space. This is why we have to realise extra student rooms earlier than we expected.’
The student accommodation provider wants to achieve this in part by speeding up the current projects. Examples are the plans for 178 new permanent rooms at the location of the former Hogeschool Diedenoort on Churchillweg and for about 200 rooms at Costerweg 65, across the driveway to Duivendaal. ‘But that will not be ready before September 2018,’ according to Deenen. The future of the 120 rooms planned on the grounds of the Kirpestein parking lot on Ritzema Bosweg is still uncertain. For the time being, the province of Gelderland is not granting an exemption for a six or seven-storey building, for fear of the possibility of the windmill De Vlijt located on the Harnjesweg not catching enough wind.
All-in-all, the plans for permanent housing will provide too few new student rooms too late to be able to accommodate the current growth, says Deenen. For this reason, Idealis has asked Wageningen University & Research and the Wageningen municipality to think along about locations for temporary accommodations that could be prepared for housing. These could be both existing buildings and temporary living units such as container housing units. Deenen does not want to mention any specific locations as of yet. ‘It is still too early for that.’