'I don't know where to go': NTU international students surprised and confused by prospect of hall eviction from July 15

[UPDATE: July 2, 7pm]

After “careful review”, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) said on Friday (July 2) that it has opened up more hall places and reached out to newly successful applicants today.

This takes into consideration that vaccinations are now well underway and other safe management measures the university intends to apply.

“All applicants who will be in Year 1 and 2 in the upcoming academic year will get a hall place in line with the two-year guaranteed hall stay guideline,” the spokesperson said.

It added: “International students who are currently hall residents will also continue to keep their hall places, on an exceptional basis, regardless of their hall points, in view of the challenges to secure alternative off-campus housing due to Covid-19.

“We are monitoring the Covid-19 situation and will continue to review the hall capacity to allow more students to stay on campus, where possible.”

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International students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) faced the prospect of eviction and a mad rush to find alternative – and pricier – accommodation within two weeks after a surprise announcement on Thursday (July 1) that spaces for hall would be reduced due to the pandemic. 

The university told The Straits Times on late Thursday night that it will be reviewing the possibility of allowing more students to live on campus in the upcoming academic year starting in August.

NTU added that hall occupancy had to be reviewed due to safe management measures and that the recent balloting exercise showed an "exceptionally strong" demand for its halls that can normally house over 14,000 students.

The NTU Students’ Union said on Thursday afternoon that they are currently working with the university’s Office of Campus Housing. While details are being confirmed, international students who have been asked to vacate their halls by July 15 will not be required to do so in the meantime.

The announcement left international students – roughly 6,000 out of 25,000 students in NTU – confused and shocked as they would have had to find a place at short notice. Many live in hall because they do not have a local residence.   

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"I got frustrated as we were all asked to move within two weeks starting from July 1," linguistics and multilingual studies student Nora Le Ha Phuong told AsiaOne. The 20-year-old Vietnamese took to Instagram as well to share her plight.

"I don’t know where to go as I cannot afford the fee outside NTU," she added and said it costs at least $400 per person compared to $265 on campus, having lived in Hall Two since 2019.

During the circuit breaker, international students like Phuong had continued living in their halls and some students were worried that changes like this may disrupt their financial and studying arrangements in Singapore.

For final-year electrical and electronic engineering student Devansh, he thought the announcement may have been a glitch in the system. When many of his peers contacted the hall officers, the 21-year-old from India realised that the "emails were no glitch and we were actually being denied residence".

"For starters, if the university has been asked to reduce occupancy in the halls due to the pandemic, we should have been informed well in advance," Devansh, who only wanted to be known by his first name, told AsiaOne.  

"In my personal opinion, it seems very unfair that international students are being given no priority for housing, since NTU is our only home in Singapore," he added. 

Meanwhile, for students like Marco Matheus Halomoan, 20, from Indonesia, he has made plans to find a new place to rent based on recommendations from his Singaporean friends.

"If there is really no spot [for us], please provide transparency about the number and who gets the [hall rooms]," the electrical and electronic engineering student said. 

Within 24 hours of the announcement, students started an online petition with more than 5,000 signatures appealing against the move. The discussion also spilled over to Reddit, especially the subreddit for NTU Singapore Community.

Students also created a Telegram channel with links to the said petition, media reports and a spreadsheet for those who need accommodation. More than 550 have subscribed to that channel.

A spokesman for the university told the media that more updates will be shared in the coming days.  

It added: "However, with vaccinations now well underway and a good vaccination rate expected, as well as other safe management measures that we intend to apply, we are currently reviewing the capacity to allow more students to stay on campus."

zakaria@asiaone.com