The motion proposed yesterday evening was prompted by conversations held with various student organizations and individual students, according to Sep Wittenbols, committee member for GroenLinks Eindhoven. Participating on behalf of TU/e were the student groups DAS, Groep-één, ONS and Cosmos (internationals). These conversations revealed that students routinely have questions arising from problems they encounter, but that they have no idea who to contact at the council for help. Sometimes, by contrast, they face a range of help options and don't know where to start. All kinds of problems are involved, like making ends meet, stress and mental health issues, and landlords, to name but a few.

According to GroenLinks and D66, because it is responsible for youth welfare, debt and poverty, good housing and so on, there's a job here for the city council. In addition, the municipal executive (mayor and councilors) is keen to establish a good network related to education, (informal) welfare services, youth and safety, and to look at which route to accessing help works best for every resident.

Joint responsibility

In the opinion of the proposers ‘the educational institutions, city council and other organizations involved share responsibility for helping students with the problems they encounter’. They believe that students are not yet sufficiently familiar with the existing resources. At every educational institution offering secondary or higher vocational education or academic education the routes to sources of help must be prominently visible, be they routes to support, advice or a referral of some kind.

The municipal executive is called upon to work with student (organizations) to find out which forms of help and support are currently available to students, and which student needs are currently going unmet. Further unknowns are how the information provision relating to this help and support is organized, and where this information provision falls short in terms of content or reaching the target group. Light must also be shed on these issues.

Consideration must certainly be given to the help students need with their finances, the municipal schemes whose target groups include students, housing and (mental) health, as well as to the specific needs of international students. Relevant organizations like DUO, the council's tenancy team and health services, including mental health services, should also be involved.

Samir Toub, the councilor with responsibility for diversity, care services, youth and social support, said that the municipal executive would embrace the motion. They and the educational institutions, he said, would look jointly at ways of boosting the provision of information relating to all kinds of schemes and official bodies of importance to students. Student organizations will also lend a hand. Rather than an isolated action plan, the result of this effort, he said, "would be part of the LEA, Eindhoven's Local Educational Agenda." 

The motion was seconded by PvdA, CDA, Volt and Ouderen Appèl. In the second quartile of 2024, GroenLinks and D66 would like to see the city council informed of the results of any follow-up steps that are taken. Toub said that this wouldn't be a problem.