Fewer new dormitory places for students than planned

A banner with the inscription: “New building completed, renovation in progress” hangs on a building. Photo: Axel Heimken/dpa/archive image

A banner with the inscription: “New building completed, renovation in progress” hangs on a building. Photo: Axel Heimken/dpa/archive image

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Kiel (dpa / lno) – The construction of new dormitories for students in Schleswig-Holstein is progressing more slowly than planned. The Ministry of Education of the German Press Agency cited the corona pandemic as the reason. The CDU, Greens and FDP had agreed in the 2017 coalition agreement to create 650 new seats in this electoral period and thus counteract the shortage. Of these, 270 are finished – in Kiel and Flensburg. A total of 87 more places are to be added in March in the two cities – that would then be a total of 357 instead of 650. The construction of 289 more places, also in Kiel and Flensburg, has been delayed due to the corona so that completion is now expected for the first half of 2023, it was said.

Another 250 places are planned for Kiel and Lübeck. However, the development plan for this is not yet available. This means that in 2025 there could be 900 more places in the country than when Jamaica started in 2017. In addition to the new buildings, dormitories are also being renovated in Kiel, for example.

The Ministry promotes the construction of low-cost housing through the allocation of leasehold land and infrastructure measures. In addition, there are 500,000 euros per year for building up additional planning capacities at the student union, so that they can push ahead with several projects at the same time. In addition, the state made 15 million euros available to the Studentenwerk in November 2020 from a Corona emergency package for new buildings. The funds will be used until 2024 primarily to cover increases in construction costs and to complete a residential home in Flensburg.

The Ministry of the Interior is also on board: it provides cheap loans for new construction and renovation from funds from social housing promotion. In addition, there are municipal funding budgets in Kiel, Lübeck and Flensburg totaling 195 million euros.

According to the student union, it operates 20 dormitories with 1936 places. “In Kiel and Flensburg we are on the right track with our new buildings,” says spokeswoman Kerstin Klostermann. However, there were not enough places because the number of students has been increasing for years. In Lübeck in particular, there is an urgent need for new, affordable living space. “Here alone at the beginning of the semester there were around 450 people on our waiting list.” Nationwide there were around 1400.

“In order to cover the most urgent needs, we would like to have 700 additional places each for Kiel and Lübeck in the short term and 300 for Flensburg,” said Klostermann. Together with other publicly funded places, this would result in a total of 5378. “This corresponds to a supply rate of 8.85 percent.” This is still slightly below the national average.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:220118-99-748607/2

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