Poor students’ living conditions lead to housing project

Whenever Kudzai Midzi and Kevin Murangari of Tugwi Trust, a philanthropic organisation that pays fees for poor students, visited their sponsored students at universities, they were horrified by the congested and poor conditions the students lived under.

“You could find up to six students cramped in one room. At US$60 per student, it meant that owners could make up to US$360 per room and, with up to 10 rooms in some houses, you can imagine how much money is made,” Midzi, a Tugwi trustee, said.

One of the sponsored students, Tonderai Mainoti, a third-year rural and urban planning student at the University of Zimbabwe, said the shortage of on-campus accommodation is a central crisis that is forcing many students to rent accommodation in communities near their universities.

“During my first year, I lived off-campus where I paid US$60 a month for a room that I shared with four other students,” Mainoti said.

“Sharing a room with four or more students is difficult as your belongings may get stolen by the same students you live with. And it’s not healthy. The other time, our roommate got sick with chickenpox and spread it to the rest of us.”

Mainoti said many students living off-campus are not able to interact with their peers because they must travel back to their living quarters – and risk being attacked by thieves on their way home. Despite the students paying up to US$100 for a shared room, most of the rented houses do not have Wi-Fi and sometimes lack basic amenities like water.

New ventures to spruce up accommodation

Marvellous Nyongoro, founder of The Housing Hub, a digital marketplace that offers student accommodation services, told University World News that the government, through the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education, has set minimum standards for student accommodation, and each university is required to ensure that landlords meet them.

“We work with the local universities to ensure that the set of norms and standards are being met. There is room for improvement, especially in terms of quality student housing. Demand is higher than supply so there is a gap that needs to be filled,” he said.

However, Mainoti is adamant that no university or government agency enforces the basic standards of student accommodation.

In 2018, dismayed by the pathetic living conditions of students in off-campus accommodation, Midzi and Murangari, a volunteer at Tugwi Trust, were compelled to buy land in the city of Gweru, near the Midlands State University (MSU), where they are now building Mvera House, a student shelter that will offer “spacious, dignified and quality accommodation to students”.

Mvera House, which will accommodate 20 students, will take in the first students in 2022.

“We shall, at most, accommodate two students per room and offer amenities such as laundry facilities, adequate reading spaces and storage areas in their rooms, and green spaces outside for students to relax,” Midzi said.

He said Tugwi Trust hopes to create partnerships in different cities and towns to provide accommodation services to higher education students.

Housing students an economic challenge

Mainoti argued that universities should use the money students pay for accommodation to build more hostels. Many universities are, however, struggling to build new student accommodation because of a difficult economic environment and, therefore, cannot match burgeoning student recruitment to the existing infrastructure.

Professor Fanuel Tagwira, the permanent secretary for higher and tertiary education, innovation, science, and technology development, acknowledged that the provision of student accommodation remains a major challenge, with less than 20% of students living in university or college accommodation.

“When you have 80% of your students living outside campus accommodation, then that is a major challenge,” he told University World News. Many universities, he said, were building student hostels with funding from the state while a few others have partnerships with the private sector.

“As we speak, the MSU is putting up a hostel that will take up 900 students. Bindura University of Science and Technology is building accommodation that will house 850 students. In addition, they have partnered with a bank to build another hostel,” Tagwira said.

“Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences (MSUAS) is constructing a hostel for 200 students, and the construction of student accommodation at Kushinga Phikelela Polytechnic is 96% complete. Except for the MSUAS project, which will finish in 2022, all the other hostels will be completed this year.”

Tagwira was quick to admit that, because of the large numbers of students currently living outside campus, it will take time to fulfil the accommodation needs of all students.

While the private sector can play a significant role in the provision of student accommodation, investors have not been very keen.

So far, the only well-known private sector-led student accommodation project is the construction of the more than 1,000-capacity facility at the National University of Science and Technology being bankrolled by Old Mutual, Zimnat and the Motor Industry Pension Fund in partnership with the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe.

“There has been interest from the private sector to partner with us in building student accommodation. But, in terms of work on the ground, we have processed a number of projects but many [partners] have not come on board citing high inflation and currency instability as the reasons why they could not start the projects,” said Tagwira.

Although housing is less of an issue under COVID-19, it remains a problem. Many rural students cannot study from home and need accommodation in urban areas where they have online access.

“We believe that, with the introduction of online learning, the pressure on accommodation is not as much as it would have been if we were having face-to-face classes, but our hope is that, when we’re able to contain COVID-19, most of our students will come back to on-campus classes. But online learning is here to stay, and it is going to be part of the blended learning model that most universities will have to adopt,” Tagwira said.