Stockholm University's International Party (TIP) on Student Housing in the City

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TIP, the second most mandated party in Stockholm University's Studentkår Council, has taken on the issue of student housing city since its inception.  But, despite the party's efforts, being in the minority coalition has prevented any real progress from being made.  The student housing problem in Stockholm continues to regress--for both native and international students--and progress simply is not being made.   

Finding housing in Stockholm is difficult even for the employed native.  It is even more difficult for the native student, and it is slowly becoming near-impossible for the international student.  The percentage of accepted exchange and ERASMUS students that are being offered housing is shrinking, to the point where many are having to rent rooms in youth hostels until they find a decent accommodation. 

Stiftelsen Stockholms Studentbostäder (SSSB) has a system that works for many but excludes many others.  SSSB runs a fairly standard queue system by which any Stockholm student whom is a member of their school's respective student union can accumulate credit days and eventually bid on a student room.  But SSSB's system has not always been this way: as early as last year, one could queue without being a member of a student union and without being enrolled in classes.  

The result?  Many queuers began accumulating days even before their international classmates ever considered studying in Sweden.  It is totally conceivable that a student who begins queueing while in gymnasiet and took some time off before university can have three, four or five times as many days as the international student who begins queueing upon earning acceptance to their Stockholm institution, i.e. usually 6-8 months before the term begins.  

To bring attention to this situation, we, The International Party at Stockholm University, are taking a stand.  In August 2010 we pitched tents at our university and slept in them for nearly two weeks.  We did this to provide temporary shelter for the countless international students who were without housing and to draw attention to their plight.  Things haven't changed much, so we're doing it again for its symbolic meaning.

16 January 2012    

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Finding Student Housing in Stockholm: A Real Pain in the SSSB

Right, so we all know that finding housing in Stockholm is a pain in the ass even for the employed native. I’m not employed and I’m not a native, so of course I’m struggling to find a place to live after my current lease expires in June. It’s not just me. Many of us international students are in similar positions.

SSSB.se is there to help us, right? Not really.

Take this hypothetical. A Swedish student – let’s call him Anders – graduates from secondary school, gynmasiet, and immediately signs up on a student-housing queue in Stockholm. A foreign student – let’s call her Mary – applies to SU in the winter for admission the following fall, and while she applied to the university, she signs up on the same housing queue as Anders. Well, Anders doesn’t go straight from gymnasiet to university, like many Swedish students: he travels for a bit, or maybe he works a job or two, taking probably an entire school year. By the time Anders applies and is accepted to SU, he’s got well over a year in credit days on his queue (i.e. from his June graduation until his admission for the August of the following year, approximately 15 months). Well, by the time Mary is accepted to SU and arrives in Stockholm, she’ll have only 8 or 9 months of credit days, for the time elapsed between her winter application and autumn admission would be, say, December to August. Both Mary and Anders are equally qualified students and are both afforded the right to live and study in Sweden – Anders by being a Swedish citizen, Mary by earning admission to SU and by being granted a student visa by Migrationsverket – but only one is likely to find student housing.

Does this make any sense?

Sure, SSSB has just announced that only those registered with a student union can queue on its list, limiting Anders and putting him on the same playing field as Mary. But the policy is not retroactive, meaning that Anders’s friend – let’s call him Johan, who began queuing right after high school, took three years off, and is now beginning studies at SU – will have over one thousand SSSB credit days while Mary – and, for that matter, Anders – are still at the bottom of the list. All three began their studies at the same time, all three proved student union membership at the same time, but only one is likely to find student housing.

Does this make any sense?

Andreas Kidane, Representative