UCD Respond to Campus Accommodation Increases

Photo Courtesy of UCD[br]Following an Irish Independent article released on Monday, UCD have today responded to a statement request from the UCD Students' Union regarding student accommodation. The Independent article focuses on universities around Dublin raising prices for their on-campus accommodation.After initially declining to release a statement on the matter, the university released a statement to the UCD Student's Union. In a post on their Facebook page, the statement declared "following several years of no or very small increases in on-campus accommodation charges, the university took the decision in 2013 to increase charges for three years to fund the maintenance of existing residences... this facilitated the provision of 354 new residences this semester."The original Irish Independent article in question contains results of a survey which state that student accommodation has risen up to €760 a year, and declared UCD as "most expensive college in the country for campus accommodation."Speaking to the University Observer, UCDSU President Conor Viscardi made it clear that the SU had pressed the University on the matter. Viscardi stated that the SU outlook on the matter has been the same for the last three years in that UCD residences are "too expensive" before he clarified stating "UCD has the most expensive campus accommodation in the country. It has the biggest at 3,164 rooms but what's the point if no one can afford it?"Viscardi continued by stating that the accommodation issue would be a major issue for the SU this year, and the SU are actively campaigning "for people to talk and voice their opinions."This survey by the Irish Independent comes just after the official unveiling of UCD's new Ashfield student accommodation, bringing the total number of residences to 3,164. The new campus accommodation is one of the more expensive at €7929.00 for the year. Three other residences on campus, Glenomena, Proby and Roebuck Hall, are equal in price to Ashfield. Including Blackrock Halls, on-campus accommodation ranges from €5,721. to €10,305.