‘Stop putting students in boxes’

In future, students will be able to apply for any of the rooms managed by Idealis. That will mean an end to the age-old policy whereby different kinds of rooms are on offer for first years, foreign students, PhD students and so on. The policy reversal is outlined in the new Idealis business plan and is explained in more detail by director Hans van Medenbach later on in this edition. Van Medenbach says Idealis was getting a lot of criticism for ‘compartmentalizing the different target groups’, which he himself terms ‘1970s policy’. In the new situation any student, regardless of their nationality, will be able to apply for any room in any Idealis complex, with furniture as an option. It will no longer matter whether you are a first year or PhD student, or where you come from. ‘It will be first come, first served’, says Medenbach. ‘So a first year from Uganda can choose a luxury apartment if he can afford it, while a Dutch PhD student on a tight budget can opt for a smaller room on a corridor.’ The new policy will be introduced step by step over the next few years. The real turning point will be 1 January 2016, when Idealis will get possession of 1,200 rooms that the university currently rents from the student housing provider for international students.