The Mayor of Lisbon today inaugurated a new university residence in the city, saying that it marks the beginning of several others, totaling “more than a thousand beds”, and enables young people to study in the capital.
“We’re going tohaveat least more than 1,000 beds. At the moment, we have 900 beds that we are working on and designing, which are being built in Ajuda, Marvila and 5 de Outubro. All this is happening in Lisbon (…) and this day marks the beginning of this new phase of projects that we are carrying out,” said Carlos Moedas (PSD).
Promoted by Lisbon City Council, this residence is the result of rehabilitation and adaptation work on two buildings on Avenida Manuel da Maia and Alameda D. Afonso Henriques, and has capacity for 320 beds, distributed between 96 single rooms and 112 double rooms, all furnished.
Ten of the approximately 17 million euros invested in this residence come from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which “saved money for the Portuguese public purse”, said Carlos Moedas.
The new residences are exclusively for scholarship students and the cost per room will vary according to the household’s income, with a minimum of 84 euros and a maximum of 324 euros.
For Carlos Moedas, this inauguration represents “an extraordinary opportunity for young students who can’t afford it”, saying that this residence represents for young students “the dream of studying and working in Lisbon”.
Affirming that it is necessary to protect the most vulnerable groups, the mayor stressed the importance of creating programs that could cover all types of households, from those who can pay 80 euros a month to those who can pay 100.
“There are a lot of people arriving in Lisbon who aren’t in the most vulnerable groups, but who also don’t have the money to pay for a room. It’s by building more that we’ll be able to help those who can only afford 80, those who can only afford 100 and so on. We have to have programs for everyone and be able to go to all types of households, but obviously we have to go to the most vulnerable first,” he said.
The new university residence, located at Avenida Manuel da Maia, 40, will be managed by the Social Services of the University of Lisbon, and the rooms will be distributed among students from all higher education institutions, public or private, with study cycles operating in the municipality.
The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, was present at the inauguration and stressed that this new university residence will “promote greater equality and fairness in access to higher education”, noting that accommodation costs are an “exclusionary factor” affecting thousands of families.
This residence is the result of a protocol signed between the City Council and the University of Lisbon and will be given to the Social Services of the University of Lisbon for ten years, which can be renewed for two equal and successive periods.
