The Minister of Youth and Modernization agreed today with the student federations’ criticism of the delay in implementing the National Plan for Accommodation in Higher Education (PNAES). “They [academic federations] are absolutely right when this national plan was defined, when it was achieved in 2018, before the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), the beds were announced and remained undone,” said Margarida Balseiro Lopes.
“When the PRR came, it was used to good advantage, it’s a pity that this funding came late to build beds, but unfortunately there was no thought given to the fact that, of the 18,000 beds that are planned in the national student accommodation plan, there are 11,000 new beds and 6,300 beds that are rehabilitations.300 beds that are being renovated, which means that when the beds are being renovated, they will no longer be available,” she warned. The Minister for Youth and Modernization was speaking to journalists in Portalegre, on the sidelines of the reopening of the youth hostel in that city, which was closed in 2012.
Margarida Balseiro Lopes also made a point of stressing that the government is “fighting against time” to provide a response to students in terms of accommodation by September. “We are fighting against time, we already have a shortage of beds because the national student accommodation plan, the implementation of the PRR, implies the unavailability of hundreds of thousands of beds and we have to find an answer,” she said.
“Every day we are working towards this, in conjunction with the universities and polytechnics, we are making progress every day,” he added. On Wednesday, the president of the Academic Federation of Porto (FAP) gave a negative note to the state of the nation, considering that higher education is not valued, and criticized the “chronic delay” in implementing the student accommodation plan.
In a press release sent to the press, Francisco Fernandes warned of the “chronic delay” in the PNAES and recalled that the “high costs” of access to housing are a “barrier to access to higher education”.
In view of the difficult access to housing, the president of the FAP advocated increasing the public housing stock from “2% to 5%” and doubling the budget allocation for the Porta 65 program, to support access for young people up to the age of 35.
Regarding the Portalegre Youth Hostel, which reopened after an investment of more than 500,000 euros supported by Movijovem and which will welcome students under the National Plan for Accommodation in Higher Education, she said that it “will provide a response” to the region’s students. The hostel has a total of 42 beds, distributed over 12 rooms: seven multiples, four doubles and one adapted double.
