Review of hall vacancies sends NTU students scrambling

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) said late last night that it was reviewing if it could let more students stay on campus in the coming school year, after a shock announcement earlier in the day that hall occupancy has been reduced for Covid-19 isolation and other related purposes.

The earlier announcement had sent thousands of students scrambling to find alternative accommodation before the start of the school year next month. Many are foreign students who are still staying in the halls as they do not have a local residence.

It is understood that students would not have to move out by July 15, as announced earlier.

In a reply to queries from The Straits Times, NTU said it had to review the number of hall places because of safe management measures, and that this year's demand for hall places had been "exceptionally strong".

"However, with vaccinations now well under way and a good vaccination rate expected, as well as other safe management measures that we intend to apply, we are currently reviewing the capacity to allow more students to stay on campus," said a spokesman for the university. He said updates would be provided in the next few days.

More than 4,700 students had signed a petition appealing against the earlier announcement.

Amid yesterday's ensuing scramble to find alternative accommodation following the earlier announcement, the NTU Students' Union sent an e-mail at 6pm telling students to stay put as it was working with the university to find more housing.

Applications for some 14,000 vacancies across 24 halls of residence must be made every year.

Foreign students said they had remained in their halls last year, even as others returned home during the circuit breaker, when weekly Covid-19 cases were in the hundreds. Students had feared their plans would be thrown into disarray, with many worried about financial issues and disrupted schedules.

Malaysian business student Rachel Ng, 23, began hunting for apartments online the moment she saw the notice at 1am. If told to vacate, she may have to pay the rent herself, as her scholarship covers only accommodation on campus.

"I have to get another job and try to make it work in order to pay rent," said the third-year student.

Mr Shoon Zhen Yong, 22, a third-year student leader of a union of some 500 Malaysian students on campus, told The Straits Times that nearly all his friends in the group had been rejected for housing.

He said: "Last year, the cases were worse, but (NTU was) able to afford them housing. Now that most of us are at least half-vaccinated, why do they suddenly want to move most of the students out?"

Vietnamese student Le Ha Phuong, 20, said rental fees could double, based on looking at off-campus apartments she had found online. "My family's finances are not strong, and I pay the hall fees myself," said the third-year humanities student.

One of the petition's creators, humanities student Jean Ku Week, 21, said a survey they had done found that 90 per cent of nearly 1,000 respondents had been rejected. Nearly half the respondents were foreign students.

Many students who were guaranteed a place were also turned down, including first-and second-year students and those with high extra-curricular activity points.

Accountancy student Ruben Selvaraju, 22, said: "We were all expecting it to be as per normal, given that the Covid-19 situation has more or less stabilised."