University College Dublin (UCD) has been criticised for increasing the cost of its campus student accommodation for the third year in a row.
The most expensive UCD accommodation is at Roebuck Castle, at €10,480 for the academic year, while the cheapest campus option is Blackrock Halls, which costs €5,896.
A UCD spokesman said: “The cost of on-campus accommodation has increased by 7 per cent this year. This follows a decision taken by the finance committee of the university in 2013 which allowed for annual increases. The decision was taken in order to fund the maintenance of existing residences and to develop further on-campus spaces as soon as possible.”
The spokesman added: “As part of this development, 354 new on-campus accommodation places are available to students this September. The current target is to increase on-campus places to 4,800.”
Students seeking accommodation in Dublin at the start of the next academic year will face problems since rents have risen and are higher in the city than they were at the peak of the property bubble.
The president of the Union of Students Ireland (USI), Kevin Donoghue, described the UCD increase as disappointing.
“It is not just UCD; institutions have repeatedly increased the cost of campus accommodation with a view to plugging holes in funding for various reasons,” he said.
“It is disappointing that the biggest third-level institution in the country could not come up with a better plan for raising funding to build more accommodation.”
A USI survey published yesterday said the cost of education was such that students feared having to drop out.
USI accused universities of prioritising international students, who pay higher tuition fees. “Universities are very concerned about recruiting international students and I wonder how concerned they would be if they were not able to charge non-EU fees to them,” Mr Donoghue said.
“Students in receipt of grants are going to be unable to afford to live on campus, and even students who aren’t, will find the cost of accommodation off campus and on it very high.”