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Plan to duplicate student beds takes effect on Wednesday

The Government’s plan, which aims to double the offer of accommodation for students in 10 years, starts Wednesday, with the publication of the respective decree-law, which involves the State, municipalities and universities.

The diploma to accelerate the construction and rehabilitation of residences for students of higher education was approved on December 20, promulgated by the President of the Republic on February 20 and published today in the Diário da República, coming into force the day after.

Although a 10-year horizon, the plan includes, in the first phase, the construction, rehabilitation and rehabilitation of more than 250 properties in the country and covers more than 7,500 beds in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto.

“This first phase of the plan already covers an increase of 80%, about 12 thousand beds, and also provides for the requalification and improvement of the conditions of about 3,000 beds already available,” the Government points out.

In December, when the diploma was approved, Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, had already anticipated that housing equivalent to 12 thousand new beds will be built as of the 2019/20 school year, namely in the Porto and Lisbon and that the measure was going to increase the current offer of accommodation for students by around 80%.

The decree-law now published provides for three types of accommodation, one of which is the rehabilitation of real estate through the National Rehabilitation Fund (FNRE), whether from the State, from higher education institutions, or from other entities.

Another modality is that the higher education institutions themselves can promote the creation of student housing, either by rehabilitating and expanding existing residences or by making new ones, with available forms of access to financing the works.

The document also provides for a third modality, which is the use of housing in real estate or other entities, public or private, through protocols with higher education institutions. In this case, according to the Government, it is already in articulation with Movijovem, an entity that manages Youth Hostels, the provision of beds.

Movijovem has made available the four lodges closed in 2013 to integrate the FNRE and identified a response capacity of about 200 beds.

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