‘I will have to endure an eight-hour round trip to avoid renting’
... as other students face renting while only attending lectures for three hours
‘I’d be stuck in my room doing lectures’
Students advised against going home
‘Timetables must be planned carefully’
A FINAL-YEAR college student will face an eighthour round trip several times a week to avoid paying pricey college accommodation, as only a handful of her lectures will be on campus.
While college accommodation is a concern for students every year, the problem has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis, as many students put off house hunting as they awaited confirmation on whether they would have lectures on campus.
With the new college term just weeks away, Ellen O’Donoghue, 21, has made the decision to travel from her family home in Teelin, Co. Donegal, to NUI Galway to attend her lectures.
The journalism student is still awaiting confirmation from the university on the number of English lectures she will have to attend on campus. All of her Irish classes can be completed online.
On the days she does have to physically attend college, she faces a 40-minute drive to the bus stop.
Next, she will travel three-and-ahalf hours to Eyre Square, paying €30 for a return Bus Éireann ticket, followed by a 15-minute walk. All in all, she could be facing an eighthour round-trip several times a week to attend one or two hourlong lectures.
Ellen lived in Galway for the first three years of her degree, paying rent of €450 per month. However, if she has to travel from Donegal to Galway twice a week, her monthly bus ticket will cost just €240.
As she heads into her final year of college, the student will have to balance the gruelling journey with writing her thesis and completing her degree.
‘I will probably have to head to Galway once or twice a week because 20% of my English lectures will be on campus,’ she explained to the Irish Daily Mail.
‘The stress of finding a house when I didn’t know how often I would be on campus was too much. I’d be living with people I don’t know, and I would be stuck in my room doing online lectures. We didn’t know until recently what was happening and I didn’t want to spend huge amounts of money on accommodation.
‘It works out cheaper for me to get the bus once or twice a week rather than pay for accommodation.
‘It is a long bus journey and sometimes I can work on the bus and sometimes I can’t. I would be able to read but I wouldn’t be able to be on the laptop.’
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Today With Claire Byrne yesterday morning, deputy president and registrar of NUI Galway, Professor Pól Ó Dochartaigh, encouraged students not to travel home at the weekends and to stay in the city as much as possible.
Ellen said this is not feasible for a lot of students as many travel home most weekends to work.
She later explained that if she has an early morning class and she does not have time to complete the four-hour trip to Galway, she may have to travel the night before and stay with a friend or in a local hostel. This is worrying, she said, as she fears bringing the virus back to her family home in Donegal.
‘I’d rather stay with friends if I had to go up because I don’t know if I would be comfortable staying in a hostel,’ she explained.
‘They’re going to have to make exceptions for people who don’t want to be on campus or who can’t get to campus. I’m hoping I’ll only be there once a week at most because I don’t want to risk myself or my family going down every single day on the bus.’
An email from NUIG on June 8, seen by the Irish Daily Mail, told students: ‘To minimise the number of contacts and protect the health of more vulnerable people, students will be encouraged to stay in Galway rather than going back and forth to home. Therefore, we encourage students to secure accommodation in Galway from September 28 onwards.’
NUIG student Conor Brummell, 21, decided to book accommodation in June when he received the email from the college. He later signed a nine-month lease with friends.
However, when he eventually received his timetable in late August, he was informed that just a third of his lectures for the year would be on campus. He will now pay €475 a month on rent in Galway City to attend college for just three hours a week.
‘Anyone who has decided to go back down since we got our timetable [last month] now can’t find accommodation because it is either all gone or people aren’t renting rooms to students in case we go back into lockdown,’ the Offaly native explained.
‘When I booked my accommodation in June, I assumed I would be on campus for a lot more than three hours a week. I’m happy to head back for a change of scenery and to see my friends. However, a lot of people can’t afford to spend
€500 a month on rent to only be on campus for three hours a week.’
Timetabling issues will also make it harder for students to decide whether or not they should return to live on or near campus. Some days, Conor explained, he will have to attend a lecture in person on site. However, the following hour, he will have to log on for a web lecture. This, he said, will make things even more difficult for students who are commuting to college or want to avoid public transport.
A spokesperson for NUIG confirmed that the college did advise students to secure accommodation in early June.
‘It was encouraged so students could be available for on-campus learning and experience the fullest student learning experience possible, given the Covid-19 restrictions,’ the spokesperson said.
‘NUI Galway appreciates the stress and difficulties students and their families face in trying to find accommodation.
‘Staff in our accommodation office are doing their utmost to facilitate students and their families in their search for suitable accommodation. At present, both NUI Galway campus residences are fully booked for the forthcoming academic year and there is a considerable waiting list should some students cancel.’
The spokesperson added: ‘We actively work with the wider community to encourage landlords to consider renting rooms to students and have been actively engaging with the community to implement best practice during the pandemic, so students can have assurances about their wellbeing during this time.
‘Indicative schedules were issued to students at the start of last week with information on the balance of on-campus and online teaching for individual courses for the coming academic year.
‘Since then full timetables have issued for some programmes and others are being finalised as soon as possible.
‘While we appreciate the need to get as much information to students, the timetables must be planned carefully to ensure that we make best use of our facilities and that capacity and access for teaching spaces is in line with public health guidelines.’
A number of third-level institutions have told students they will have to attend some lectures on campus, with those having to attend labs or practical classes expected to be on site more often.