The Government has poured four trillion dong to help HCM City’s plans to create dorms for 100,000 students by 2015, but construction has been slow.

SOS: students’ dormitories degrading, contaminated

Student dormitories could double as houses for low-income earners

Students face dorm shortages

Only 17 percent of demand covered by dorms

To support plans to accommodate 100,000 students by 2015, the city has provided a large sum of money, plus many preferences to project investors. A steering committee to manage construction has been established and its deputy head is the Director of the Construction Department.

HCM City National University dorms, to be located in Thu Duc District and in Binh Duong province, are considered vital because they will accommodate half of 100,000 students. Yet construction here has just begun.

Other dorm projects in Districts 7 and 9 face the same situation. Ton Duc Thang University will have one of its two buildings completed by the end of 2010, while the other will only open at the end of 2011. HCM City University of Education, HCM City University of Transport and University of Culture dorms will also become operational in 2011.

As such, the goal to build 28 dorms for 30,000 students in 2009-2010 has failed and will be fulfilled only in 2011.

This means that only some students will be able to live in dormitories for the 2010-2011 school year. New students must still meet specific requirements to be able to have a bed in the dormitories.

HCM City now has 328,500 students who are studying at universities and junior colleges, and 70 percent of them come from the provinces. Existing dorms can meet only 17 percent of the demand for accommodations.

The Construction Junior College No. 2 is allowed to build its own dormitories with capital provided by Government bonds. The junior college seriously lacks enough living spaces for students. Chu Van Quyet, M.A., Headmaster of the junior college, estimated that the school has 7000 students, half of which need accommodations. The college’s existing dormitories can provide beds for only 760 students, so the others must find accommodations elsewhere on their own.

According to Tien Phong newspaper, the dorm project for Construction Junior College No. 2 can be completed more rapidly than others, because the dormitories are built on campus so not a long time is needed for site clearance. Despite more favourable conditions, this project has also gone very slowly.

The Ministry of Construction agreed in principle to the dorm project in June 2009. It took another six months to gain approval from HCM City Department of Planning and Architecture. Then, it took several more months for relevant agencies to put the project on the list of those developed with capital from Government bonds.

Because of the red tape, the project will only be able to start in one year, which means that students will only have accommodations no sooner than 2013.

Source: Tien phong