- Say landlords now charge N500, 000 for a room λLands available for stakeholders to build hostels, ensure affordable rents – VC
Students of tertiary institutions of learning, especially public universities have been bearing the brunt of the poor infrastructural challenges rocking the nation’s citadels of learning, findings by THE POINT have revealed.
Basic among these crises is the shortage of hostel accommodation which has become a perennial challenge in most institutions of higher learning.
As a result of the high rise in the number of students who are admitted every year, several of them scramble to get bed spaces.
In the wake of the constraints, available spaces are crammed with not less than 10 percent of students in some schools, thus leaving the other 90 per cent paying exorbitant rents outside their campuses.
The inability of universities to provide hostels for all the students has compelled many students to seek accommodation outside the campuses and neighbouring communities.
The trend has gone a long way in boosting the economy of the communities as landlords smile to the banks, while their student-tenants groan under exorbitant rents.
Some of the students who spoke with THE POINT across the country in their separate interviews, disclosed the plight they are facing outside their campuses, accusing landlords of reaping them off through costly rents.
They said that house rent has risen to half a million naira for a room self-contained. They added that estate developers who charge less have their buildings far to their campuses while other cheaper accommodations are of old buildings.
A student of the Osun State University, Osogbo main campus, Ginikachukwu Ode, said she lives in a self-contained hostel close to School Gate and that she paid “a total package of N500, 000.”
“I stayed in the School Gate area because I couldn’t get accommodation on campus. So, I had to go for an option around the Oke-Baale area, where private individuals constructed hostels and rented them out to students. The hostels were constructed in a self-contained format which accommodates two to three students each. My room has three students and we all gathered money to pay N500, 000 for a room.
“Paying such a huge amount of money has not been easy for my parents because I know what they pass through before paying my tuition fees, not to talk of rents. I wish the school management could do something urgently,” she said.
A male undergraduate of the school in the Public Health Department, Bayo, said he pays N350,000 for a self-contained accommodation where he currently stays, adding that it is not far from the campus.
“I stay off campus and I have been paying N350, 000 annually. I had to get two of my friends and accommodate them so that we can share the rent,” he revealed.
The situation is not different at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife where thousands of students live off-campus.
Students have been forced to stay in communities very far to the campus because there is no accommodation around the school.
Gideon, a student of OAU who stays close to campus revealed that he pays N300, 000 as rent, adding that his landlord did not permit any of his tenants to accommodate another person in a room.
“Where I stay, I pay N300,000 as rent but it is painful that my landlord doesn’t permit any of us tenants to squat, if not, I would have accommodated some of my friends so that we can share the rent. I stayed off-campus because I couldn’t get accommodation on campus. I struggled for bed space but I wasn’t lucky. I stayed in the school hostel in my 100 level but when I got to 200, I was not given. So, I moved outside,” he noted.
A 300-level student of the Department of English, Emmanuel Adeniyi, lamented that landlords and other estate developers are used to increasing rents every year.
He said, “I stay very far from campus after the Ooni of Ife palace and my transportation fare alone is high. I pay N150, 000 but I am not happy that my caretaker hikes rent every year. I used to pay N100, 000 before it increased to N150, 000.”
It was gathered that at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, most students live off-campus located at Aluu and Choba, the host communities of the university, while others come to school from their respective homes. In Aluu, property developers built hostel accommodations and rented them out at very high costs.
Over 70 percent of the students of the Federal University, Otuoke in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, also live off-campus due to shortage of hostel space on the campus. Some students who could not secure accommodation on campus said high rents and inconveniences affect their full concentration on academic activities.
They lamented that due to the rise in demand for accommodation by students, landlords in the Otuoke community where the institution is located had hiked rents.
Also, the students of the University of Benin are battling with accommodation challenges. Some of the students who spoke to our correspondent said accommodation had been a serious problem in their respective schools.
Both the Ebonyi State University and the Federal University, Dutsinma, in Katsina State, are facing inadequate accommodation crises along with other public universities.
Meanwhile, the menace has become a source of worry for school managements. Determined to proffer a solution to the problem, some university managements said they would collaborate with more estate developers to build hostels outside their campuses.
In fact, the Vice Chancellor of the Osun State University, Clement Adebooye, who confirmed that students pay N500, 000 as rents off campus, said the state owned university is ready to provide land for estate developers who want to build hostels and make them available for students at cheaper rates.
Adebooye said the school management cannot proffer a full solution to the hostel crisis, calling on estate developers to approach the management for Public Private Partnership that would assist in mitigating the huge rents students pay off-campus.
Describing the payment of N500, 000 as rent for a student as outrageous, the Professor lamented that students now pay house rents that are higher than their school fees.
He blamed rising numbers of students for the menace, saying Osun State University currently has over 30,000 students from its 12,000 population.
“I agree that students who stay off-campus are paying exorbitantly for rents. It is very outrageous. You see students paying N500, 000, N400, 000 for a room self-contained. We are aware of this but there is nothing we can do. We can’t solve this accommodation challenge alone.
“We are calling on stakeholders, especially estate developers to approach us for a PPP deal. We will provide lands for them to build about 50 rooms, 30 rooms so that students can pay cheaper. This is caused by the increasing number of students. Before, we had over 12,000 students, but now, we have about 34,000 students in UNIOSUN,” the Vice Chancellor said.