Selling student house to finance student accommodation
The Ministry of Education and Research will finance new student accommodation by selling its own student house, Studenterhuset.
On 27 March, Universitas reported on Studenterhuset in Schultzgate 7 that was to be sold. The house is owned by the Ministry of Education and Research (UFD), which was awaiting appraisal of the property in March. The house, which is situated in the heart of Majorstua, shelters around 70 students. According to the Budget of the Stoltenberg government, Studenterhuset will be sold in order to cover increased funds to the construction of new student accommodation of NOK 10 million.
– Cultural loss
– We will fight against the sale. The house has been in use for 85 years, and we are very preoccupied with keeping its standards up, current house manager John Einar Hagen says.
He points out that the house is one of the oldest student houses to be run by the students themselves, and that it would be a cultural loss to terminate such an operation. He has teamed up with the Directorate for Cultural Heritage, politicians along with current and former residents.
Hagen appreciates the difficulties for UFD of owning an independent student house and hopes that an alternative agreement satisfactory to both parties can be reached. One possible solution might be that the residents form a foundation which can sign the house to its name, and that the foundation can subsequently look into various alternatives to cover refurbishment needs.
– UFD has told us earlier that it is not a matter of money, but of redistribution. It is pointless to sell only to spend the money on something else. Reconstruction would be more expensive than refurbishment, Hagen says.
More accommodation?
– That the Ministry is to be the owner of student accommodation, is not ideal. Furthermore, we may end up with even more accommodation according to the estimates, Deputy Director of the UFD Department of Higher Education Erik B. Pettersen says, and refers to estimates ranging between NOK 16 and 40 million, depending on sale clause.
Clauses vary from a requirement of eternal student occupancy to a sale under no obligations what so ever.
