“International students who come to Delft have a big surprise waiting for them soon upon arrival. It’s not the culture shock, nor the workload . that comes much later! Rather, it’s something now known popularly as the housing container or ‘space-box’.
Even the most easy going among us raise our eyebrows at this extremely bijou room, which is accompanied by a tiny closet masquerading as a bathroom. It’s not that we don’t particularly enjoy feeling like giants in our own room, but it really puzzles us why this is being offered at a rental fee that would fetch a family house in our home countries.
Over the past two years I’ve learnt that finding accommodation that caters to all my needs is an extreme challenge in this country. Given my own difficult experiences, I can’t help but feel for the concept of the space-box . a sincerely attempted brainchild that missed its intended mark by a mile. Fact is, the average international student is not looking for deluxe accommodation, but rather something affordable that caters to the bare essentials. These bare essentials would be: a private study area, a high-speed Internet connection and access to cooking and toiletry facilities when required. Common sense would not translate those needs into individual studio rooms, but rather simple shared accommodation. Unfortunately, support from fraternity houses for the international student is very conspicuous by its absence. The fraternity system works very well, even elsewhere in Europe, by providing shared and hence affordable accommodation. Besides the obvious advantage to one’s bank balance, shared living promotes interaction between people of varied cultures outside of the classroom. It would also help to alleviate the feelings of loneliness and monotony that most international students complain of during their stays in Delft.
With the constantly increasing number of international students at TU Delft, the student administration is facing an uphill battle in finding a solution to the problem of finding accommodation for these students. This issue is very much a growth pain that the TU must work to tackle. The situation is only bound to get more acute as the TU’s popularity grows among foreign applicants. Matters are made further worse owing to students of many departments being unable to finish their courses within the officially allotted two-year period. Sooner or later, they have to be kicked out of their rooms to make way for the next batch of students. So, limited student accommodation via DuWo becomes student accommodation primarily for new students. Many of us have been crying ourselves hoarse about the monopolistic manner in which accommodation is dealt to students . and yet things don’t seem to be getting better. If the TU is sincere in it’s aspirations to become a prime destination for an international Master’s diploma, they had better start getting the infrastructure for that in place. It’s high time this matter of student accommodation is tackled. The TU owes its many students decent, safe living facilities, rather than forcing them to fend for themselves in one of the harshest housing markets in the world!”
Ramesh Chidambaram is from India. He is an MSc micro-electronics student at TU Delft.
“International students who come to Delft have a big surprise waiting for them soon upon arrival. It’s not the culture shock, nor the workload . that comes much later! Rather, it’s something now known popularly as the housing container or ‘space-box’. Even the most easy going among us raise our eyebrows at this extremely bijou room, which is accompanied by a tiny closet masquerading as a bathroom. It’s not that we don’t particularly enjoy feeling like giants in our own room, but it really puzzles us why this is being offered at a rental fee that would fetch a family house in our home countries.
Over the past two years I’ve learnt that finding accommodation that caters to all my needs is an extreme challenge in this country. Given my own difficult experiences, I can’t help but feel for the concept of the space-box . a sincerely attempted brainchild that missed its intended mark by a mile. Fact is, the average international student is not looking for deluxe accommodation, but rather something affordable that caters to the bare essentials. These bare essentials would be: a private study area, a high-speed Internet connection and access to cooking and toiletry facilities when required. Common sense would not translate those needs into individual studio rooms, but rather simple shared accommodation. Unfortunately, support from fraternity houses for the international student is very conspicuous by its absence. The fraternity system works very well, even elsewhere in Europe, by providing shared and hence affordable accommodation. Besides the obvious advantage to one’s bank balance, shared living promotes interaction between people of varied cultures outside of the classroom. It would also help to alleviate the feelings of loneliness and monotony that most international students complain of during their stays in Delft.
With the constantly increasing number of international students at TU Delft, the student administration is facing an uphill battle in finding a solution to the problem of finding accommodation for these students. This issue is very much a growth pain that the TU must work to tackle. The situation is only bound to get more acute as the TU’s popularity grows among foreign applicants. Matters are made further worse owing to students of many departments being unable to finish their courses within the officially allotted two-year period. Sooner or later, they have to be kicked out of their rooms to make way for the next batch of students. So, limited student accommodation via DuWo becomes student accommodation primarily for new students. Many of us have been crying ourselves hoarse about the monopolistic manner in which accommodation is dealt to students . and yet things don’t seem to be getting better. If the TU is sincere in it’s aspirations to become a prime destination for an international Master’s diploma, they had better start getting the infrastructure for that in place. It’s high time this matter of student accommodation is tackled. The TU owes its many students decent, safe living facilities, rather than forcing them to fend for themselves in one of the harshest housing markets in the world!”
Ramesh Chidambaram is from India. He is an MSc micro-electronics student at TU Delft.
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