Monday 20 November 2023 saw the first ground being broken for the new halls of residence on the Saarland University campus in Saarbrücken. These should help boost the campus as a place of research, life and learning.
The first phase of construction involves building three halls of residence for 234 students. This will enable students to live and study on the university campus. The first students will be able to move into one of the new halls in just over two years, boosting Saarland’s overall attractiveness as a university location.
Minister Jakob von Weizsäcker notes: ‘My goal as Minister of Science is to increase our attractiveness to prospective students via excellent, modern study facilities, enabling our universities to maintain student numbers despite the known demographic change occurring in Saarland, and thus to train specialists for the economy and society. There is already competition for current and prospective students at universities in Germany. Our universities therefore need to further develop international student acquisition even more than ever, in particular as regards the STEM subjects that are so vital for our economy. Given this, boosting the attractiveness of our university location also means providing students with suitable accommodation and specifically enhancing the university’s campus in Saarbrücken as a place of research, life and learning. The campus should also be an attractive place to spend time during the evenings.’
The new accommodation should also make it easier for international students and visiting researchers to come to Saarland University, thus increasing Saarland’s overall attractiveness as a university location.
Minister of Construction Reinhold Jost: ‘Affordable housing is a particularly important topic for students, and I am delighted that we are able to break ground on these new halls of residence today. The state is investing around 4 million in preliminary infrastructure measures for this part of the campus. A significant portion of the planned accommodation will be financed by social housing assistance funds, meaning that in the future, low-income students with families will be able to live on campus. The project will also benefit from the funding programmes’ recently improved conditions. This includes making it easier for international students to access the funded apartments.’
The first phase of construction is being financed by the state housing association. The project is receiving around 4.5 million euros of funding from the Ministry of the Interior, Construction and Sport, drawn from student programme funds as part of social housing assistance.
