You haven’t really been a student in the Netherlands until you’ve had some housing troubles. No one knows this better than Vos Vissers, who has to commute four hours each day to get to and from university.
While Voss attends a Dutch university, he technically isn’t a student in the Netherlands — at least not in his free time. He still lives in his German hometown, since finding a room in Utrecht is simply impossible.
The daily grind
The second-year journalism student describes his daily commute to the AD. It starts at about 7:30 AM in Kranenburg, Germany, a town right across the border.
The bus is the first mode of transportation on Vos’s list — if it shows up. If it doesn’t come or happens to arrive early, he has to wait an entire hour for the next one. 🚏
After taking the bus across the German-Dutch border, Vos hops on a 50-minute long train to Utrecht, followed by a tram to his university campus.
His total travel time? A whopping four hours. We just hope his teachers have a relaxed lateness policy.
Sounds exhausting? Must be. But not as exhausting as trying to find a room in Utrecht.
The Utrecht housing nightmare
Vos applied to about 80 rooms in Utrecht last year, but got invited to a hospiteeravond only five of those times.
As he remarks, getting invited to meet the roommates in a student house is no success on its own.
READ MORE | 5 things to know about the Dutch student housing crisis
Potential new roommates have to toe the line between not being too nice (and seeming fake) and not being too reserved.
And you better hope one of the room applicants isn’t already friends with the residents. In that case, your chances are zero.
There might be hope for Vos
Considering the fact that Vos is still making his 4-hour journey a year and a half into his studies, he has to be an incredibly optimistic and determined person (or at least incredibly passionate about journalism).
But the good news is that he might have things to look forward to.
In the coming year, Utrecht will see the largest increase in the amount of student rooms in the entirety of the Netherlands, with hundreds of new accommodations being announced.
READ MORE | 11 creative solutions to the Dutch student housing crisis that makes us say “Why didn’t we think of that?”
However, the shortage is significant, with one estimate being that Utrecht needs over 5,000 new student rooms. 😬
In any case,we just hope Vos’ commute to his graduation will be significantly shorter!
What’s the craziest housing situation you’ve had to deal with? Let us know in the comments!
