Universiteit Leiden

The room that I have is big enough for me. It is one of the rooms in the biggest student house in Leiden. There are approximately 250 students live in the building which is divided into 5 wings, A, B, C, D and E, with 3-4 floors per wing. Each section (each floor per each wing)has its own kitchen that is to be shared for 8-12 people. There are usually three showers and two toilets for each section, and to be shared for all the tenants in that section. There is also a laundry room with 8 machines and 10 dryer for all the tenants. The facilities in this building are not as good as I expected. Some of them are in not good condition. Some of them are not working, and need to be fixed. Some of them need to be replaced. There is a garden located in the center of this building that lacks of maintenace. Some of the rooms are not in good condition, for example the heaters are not working or there is water coming from the roof when it is raining. However, it is located close to the faculty where I study. It is also located in the center of the city. Almost everything is in the close distance range, i.e. supermarket, student center, town hall, etc. And it is fun to live with a lot of neighbours, and close to my friends.

I think the problem is that Leiden is a small city with a high population of students, and as such accomodation costs are a bit expensive especially for international students. I think if there were on campus accomodations it will be a bit better.

It was done by the University through SLS wonen, a private agency for seeking housing. They charge 75$ which is slightly high, however, students new to the city find it convienient to avail the facility. The housing is carpeted and spacious with enough ventilation and good ambience. Caretaker at the apartment is helpful giving infos on the city and for safety.

The housing at the univeristy was in itself. In comparison to the London prices that I paid at home I found the price reasonable and good value for money, although this wasn;t the case for other students who had would pay less at the home univeristy. However, the main problem was the organisation of allocating housing and enabling students to address any problems. Students would apply for housing through the univeristy's international office but was allocated by another body, SLS. If there were any problems, which I had at the beginning when I was only given accommodation two days before my arrival (and for some friends they didn't even have accommodation after they arrived), I was thrown between the two bodies who were fairly disprganised. For the first semester I was given accommodation at the Hooigracht which was undergoing renovations and so our rent was reduced as a result. Although the accommodation was not particularly nice it was fine because I wa spaying low rent. however the major problems happened was when we had to move to new accommodation, although we ended up the new Hugo De grootstraat, which turned out to be for our benefit, we still ahd to pay admin fees and wait a long time to be allocated rooms. This was despite the fact that we had to move because of SLS and the renovations going on at the Hooi. Overall the housing itself was fine and being in student accommodation with other inetrnational students made my experience all the better. it was ojly the organisation of it that made my arrival a little stressful.

SLS, the accomodation agency officially attached to the university, is not enough to handle the demand in a town as little as Leiden. Though it's not an easy one for foreigners, the best option is to find a room through the so called "hospiteravonds".

it was expensive, for sure , about 300euros for a small room and shared bathroom and kitchen with 6 others studnets, but the living room was huge, cable, pools...