CAO offers will trigger mass scramble for digs

Student leaders at NUIG are fearful of a last-minute scramble for housing like never seen before in the city – as students delay securing accommodation until course timetables are published, revealing when lectures take place on campus.

Ahead of the CAO offers being issued tomorrow (Friday), some GMIT students are opting to book into hotels for a few nights a week to attend their limited practical classes rather than signing full-term housing leases.

On both sides of town, ‘digs’ have almost disappeared due to fears of contagion. This style of accommodation – where a hot meal as well as a room is provided by homeowners – has traditionally been favoured by first years.

The ‘rent-a-room’ scheme in houses popular with elderly people has also been largely abandoned because of health concerns over spreading the virus.

NUIG Students’ Union president Pádraic Toomey believes the annual scramble for student housing is even more stressful in this Covid-19 era due to the uncertainty for their students about when lectures will take place on campus as opposed to online.

“Students still don’t have their timetables, they still don’t know what day of the week their campus lectures will take place – they’ve been told there will be anything from two hours to 15 hours of actual lectures but not when those hours will be, if they will be all one day or spread throughout the week,” he exclaimed.

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