Accommodation costs keep students away from higher education

The high cost of housing in several cities and the lack of support are driving more and more young people away from higher education, warn student representatives who are calling for increased social work in schools.
The application period for the first phase of the national competition for access to higher education ended on Monday with around 50,000 students registered, nine thousand fewer than the previous year and a figure only comparable to that recorded in 2018.
One of the possible reasons cited by the presidents of the academic federations of Lisbon and Porto is the cost of attending higher education, with one expense in particular standing out: student accommodation.
According to the Student Accommodation Observatory, which tracks private student housing and rents nationwide, a room in Lisbon costs, on average, 500 euros per month.
The capital is the most expensive city, but in other cities with higher education institutions, prices also represent a barrier. In Porto, for example, the average rent is €400, and in Faro it's around €380, dropping slightly to €330 in Aveiro and €280 in Coimbra.
“A family with less favorable socioeconomic conditions will certainly have great difficulty allowing their children to study at higher education level,” stressed the president of the Lisbon Academic Federation (FAL).
Speaking to Lusa news agency, Pedro Neto Monteiro recalls that, last year, renting a room in Lisbon cost, on average, 480 euros.
“It’s a significant increase, with no corresponding increase in families’ ability to afford these courses,” he says.
In Porto, rents are also more expensive this year, and Francisco Porto Fernandes notes that while poorer students have priority in accessing public student residences or access to additional housing, middle-class families find themselves "financially suffocated" in trying to afford higher education for their children.
On the other hand, the president of the Porto Academic Federation (FAP) considers that even support for needy students is insufficient.
In the next academic year, 2025/2026, the housing support currently provided to scholarship students will be extended to all displaced higher education students whose annual household per capita income is below 14,630 euros.
Similar to what is foreseen for scholarship holders, other displaced students with lower incomes will also be entitled to a "monthly supplement equal to the amount actually paid for accommodation and proven by receipt or bank transfer", according to the law of the Assembly of the Republic.
The main problem, say the presidents of the two academic federations, is that around half of young people, subject to the parallel market, do not have a rental contract.
"It's a good measure and it's important that it be maintained, but it doesn't solve the problem structurally," says the FAP director, who advocates for the construction of more public housing and the strengthening of credit lines so that higher education institutions can enter into agreements with public, private, and social entities.
Regarding student residences, the Government estimates that, by September, work will be completed on 19 university residences, representing more than two thousand beds, most of which are new, and to which 2,270 more can be added through protocols for student accommodation.
In a report made to Lusa last week, the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation stated that the target set by the previous Government was to reach 18,000 beds, an objective that, among projects completed and approved but yet to be started, already has 19,000 beds contracted.
In Lisbon, according to the president of FAL, there are around 2,700 beds available, but the number of displaced students in the region is around 50,000, and therefore, not even the 19,000 beds contracted for the entire country would be enough.
Another alternative to support displaced students would be the Porta 65 Jovem program, which aims to support young people aged 18 to 35 in renting housing, but in this case too, the majority are left out.
In addition to many not having a rental contract, the majority live in rented rooms and still file their tax returns with their parents, situations that are not accepted.
"More needs to be done to allow university students access to affordable housing," argues Pedro Neto Monteiro.
"The problem of student housing isn't a problem for young people, nor for parents. It's a problem for the country, because higher education should be a social elevator and is most likely reproducing preexisting inequalities, because those who have less can't survive in the system," says the FAP president.
The Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre, has already announced his intention to review the social action system and requested that a study be carried out on the current system.
Any changes will take effect in the 2026/2027 academic year, but students warn that the issues are urgent. "They need to be addressed yesterday, in fact," emphasizes the FAL president.
observador