The Studierendenwerk Thüringen offers apartments for young people in numerous properties in the state. However, getting one of these apartments is anything but easy. Demand is often significantly greater than supply.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – In many places in Thuringia, it is very difficult for students to find a place in a hall of residence run by the Studierendenwerk. In the 2022/2023 winter semester, the demand for such places was 7.4 percent higher than in the same period last year, according to the Thuringian Ministry of Science’s response to a small inquiry from FDP MPs Dirk Bergner and Thomas Kemmerich. “The high demand was offset by only a limited number of free places at the Studierendenwerk.” In Jena, Nordhausen and Schmalkalden in particular, many times the number of applicants came for a vacant place to live. Nevertheless, the ministry does not want to speak of a housing shortage for students in Thuringia.
The Studierendenwerk Thüringen operates according to its own information residential complexes in the university towns of Jena, Weimar, Erfurt, Ilmenau, Schmalkalden and Nordhausen. Those who live there pay a flat rate rent that already includes all operating costs. The rental prices for the places in the dormitories are usually around 200 to 300 euros per month.
In Erfurt, Ilmenau and Weimar, an average of three students applied for a vacant place in a hall of residence, the ministry wrote in its reply to the two FDP politicians. The Ministry cannot say in which university towns young people could not find a place in a hall of residence and therefore decided to study at another university or technical college. “Corresponding data are not collected by the Studierendenwerk Thüringen – due to a lack of information from the students who may be affected – and are therefore not available.”
The Ministry uses experience to justify the fact that despite the shortage of places in student halls of residence there is no housing shortage for students in Thuringia. The answer to the small inquiry states that the housing situation at the beginning of each winter semester is always tense for students in Thuringia. “However, it relaxes after a short time after accommodation has been found on the private housing market.”
