Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim, Sengkang GRC
Question
To ask the Minister for Education what assistance is the Ministry offering to NTU to resolve the hall allocation issue faced by students.
Response
1. NTU has residential hostels which cater to students who wish to live on-campus. Staying on-campus is not guaranteed by NTU except for Years 1 and 2 students. For Years 3 and 4 students applying for hall places, they are prioritised based on their participation in hostel activities and co-curricular activities (CCAs).
2. This year, NTU saw exceptionally strong demand, with around 20% more applications for hostel places compared to previous years. Some of these applications are from incoming new students while the rest are from existing students who wish to continue staying on-campus, and those who had previously been staying off-campus but now wish to move into the NTU hostels.
3. In view of the higher risk of COVID-19 transmission associated with communal living arrangements, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has been working closely with the AUs since last year to put in place strict Safe Management Measures (SMMs) in the hostels to safeguard the health and well-being of students. This had reduced hostel capacity to minimise risks of transmission.
4. With vaccinations now well under way and expected strong take-up, MOE has worked with the AUs to allow more students to stay in hostels, with strict SMMs continuing to be in place.
5. With this increase, NTU has allocated more hostel places to students, including international students and those who would have been previously guaranteed a hall space under NTU's two years' guaranteed hall accommodation guideline. Students with exceptional circumstances are also considered on a case-by-case basis.
6. For students who have not been allocated a hostel space and have difficulty finding housing options, NTU has been helping them to find alternative accommodation. To better support its students, NTU is also expanding the coverage and increasing the frequency of its island-wide shuttle bus services to support students' travel from pick-up points near their places of residence to campus.