More rooms for PhD students in Delft

The Papenstraat facility currently contains seventy-one units, of which seven are already self-contained, meaning they do not share any facilities like kitchens or bathrooms with other tenants. The rooms are mostly rented by international students from both TU Delft, and IHE Delft (the international graduate water education facility). These tenants will either move to a different DUWO building, or, when they are done with their study or exchange in the Netherlands, simply move out.

The conversion of the units will start this summer, and continue in phases until some point in 2019. The newsletter states that sixty-one units will be converted into self-contained rooms. The new units will be available to both Dutch and international PhD candidates. DUWO has contracts with TU Delft for nine rooms for PhD long stays, and contracts with IHE Delft for some rooms. This means that the application process for these units goes through the university. The other rooms will be rented out via the renting website, Room.

‘This target group tend to be more serious’

Michiel Ensink, branch director of DUWO Delft, says that the decision to renovate the Papenstraat building is prompted by IHE Delft’s decision to decrease the number of units they have under contract at Papenstraat. Another reason that DUWO has chosen to focus more on PhD candidates, is that “it is an older target group and they tend to be more serious than bachelor and master students, and in general they have an income”. PhD candidates are often more interested in a self-contained unit than one with shared facilities.

At the moment, DUWO already offers long-stay housing for PhD candidates in Delft in buildings at the Mijnbouwplein, Balthasar van der Polweg and the Michiel de Ruyterweg. In 2019, DUWO will also finish building a new student housing complex at the Balthasar van der Polweg which will have 136 self-contained units.