NORWAY: Foreign students set to lose housing guarantee

Grunerløkka student apartments (Photo: SiO/Stein J. Bjørge)

International students should not be given top priority for student housing in Oslo at the expense of first-year students from other parts of Norway, a student council has ruled.

Until now, international students moving to the Norwegian capital have gained an automatic place at the top of the queue for student accommodation managed by the student welfare organization for Oslo and Akershus (SiO).

This week, however, the region’s Welfare Council (Velferdstinget – VT) ruled that domestic first-year college students from outside the Oslo area should be given the same housing opportunities as their international counterparts, student newspaper Universitas reports.

If SiO’s governing committee votes to approve the move, the new rules will come into effect on January 1st 2013.

”We think it’s right to prioritize international students in the queue, but not in unlimited numbers and not to the total detriment of other first-year students,” said Welfare Council chief Birgit Skarstein.

The council instead wants individual universities and colleges to assume responsibility for finding accommodation for students from abroad.

Source: The Local (Norway)