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LAST UPDATE | 24 Jun
STATE-BACKED STUDENT accommodation will have shared bathrooms, twin rooms, and communal kitchens in a bid to increase bed capacity.
Cabinet today noted the new national design standards which aim to ensure faster delivery of much-needed student accommodation.
The current reliance on individual ensuite units is to be replaced with the new model which will enable greater use of “shared facilities”, ministers will hear today.
The new design will support higher bed capacity, faster delivery and procurement savings, Cabinet heard today.
The Tánaiste denied that the move was about squishing students into small accommodation units, stating that ”that’s the last thing the government is seeking to do”.
He said when he was Higher Education Minister, he heard from “countless students and their parents” who said they had to pay “exorbitant rents” for specially-built student accommodation which has facilities “that they never asked for in the first place”.
“A lot of students said to me was we need to get into a system by standardised design,” he said, stating that there will be up to three or four different design templates.
Cabinet was told today that the shared and communal areas will “encourage a more sociable, integrated student experience”.
In November 2022, the government decided to to get involved in the development of new student accommodation for higher education institutions. This was the first time the State stepped in to provide funding to build student accommodation.
On the back of a construction cost study carried out two years ago, students, providers, planners and experts were consulted on what might make the best possible design for student accommodation. The new design principles published today follow such engagement.
The lack of student accommodation has been a long-standing factor during the housing crisis, particularly at the start of each academic year. Student representative bodies have been sounding the alarm over the lack of accommodation for many years.
On the back of new Rent Pressure Zone legislation signed into law last week, Housing Minister James Browne confirmed that there “won’t be any special measures” put in place to protect students renting in the private sector from rising rents.
Browne said he would be meeting with the Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless to “see what proposals we can to ensure that students are protected in student-specific accommodation”.
On a separate issue, Lawless, along with Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers will update Cabinet on the Public Service Apprenticeship Plan, which aims to expand public sector participation in apprenticeship.
It aims hit 750 yearly registrations, with registrations rising from 67 in 2022 to a projected 554 in 2025.
New apprenticeships have been developed in key areas such as social work, digital marketing, spatial planning and public service operations.
Separately, Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee will update Cabinet on the new Leaving Cert curriculum and the outcome of recent ballots held by post-primary teacher unions.
The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland rejected the measures aimed at enabling Leaving Cert reforms, and voted in favour of industrial action.
ASTI members voted to reject the Senior Cycle Redevelopment – Implementation Support Measures’ by 68% to 32%. The turnout was 73%.
TUI members voted by 73% to 27% to accept the supports package.
The reforms, which are due to be implemented this September, propose allocating a minimum of 40% of Leaving Cert marks to project work or practicals across all subjects in an effort to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of student’s skills.
But teachers have voiced concerns about how the moves will affect the way students are assessed and marked, especially in the context of the risk of students using artificial intelligence to complete assignments.
The minister will say that while supports for teachers included in the Senior Cycle reform package will benefit TUI members, the implementation of targeted supports for students contained in the package will not be affected by the outcome of the ballots, and that the department will engage with representatives of teachers and school management bodies over the summer in respect of the implementation of senior cycle reform.
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