The Executive Board also didn’t fail to notice the strong increase in demand for student housing in Eindhoven, and the fact that the growth of its own student inflow is an important contributing factor. Making locations for student housing available on campus, as Niels Groot proposed in the municipal council on behalf of the CDA faction, is one of the options with which Nicole Ummelen - responsible, as vice-president, for housing - hopes to tackle this problematic issue as well.

Ummelen: “TU/e and the municipality most definitely want to contribute to finding the solution to this problem, in collaboration with several other parties. But we can’t make any concrete statements at this point as far as the available square meters, or the time period in which this could be realized, are concerned. The urgency of the problem, however, is recognized by all parties, including us.”

Luna and Aurora

To support that claim, Ummelen reiterates the fact that TU/e already made a significant contribution with the conversion of Potentiaal (the building in which Electrical Engineering used to be housed) into residential complex Luna, and the construction of residential tower Aurora not far away from Luna by housing corporation Woonbedrijf. Ummelen: “The housing units near the Berenkuil roundabout not far from our campus, also from Woonbedrijf, were recently placed as well. We have gone to great lengths to realize each of these housing projects, in collaboration with other parties.”

Ummelen can’t say whether the Executive Board is still negotiating the construction plans of a residential, work and learning complex with Hurks Vastgoed, the construction company that announced these plans exactly one year ago. Nor does she wish to respond to the question whether the university has set limits on the maximum number of housing units it wants to allow on campus.

For some time now, a steering group headed by Ummelen has been drafting a Masterplan Housing for the next twenty years. This plan is currently being finalized, but still needs to be submitted to several administrative bodies within the university, the vice-president says. Until that time, she doesn’t want to make any comments on the plan, also not with regard to possible plans for extra student housing. The Masterplan is expected to be made public in early 2020.