Student Rooms Too Expensive: Who Informs Students About Their Rights?

Tilburg University, student party SAM and student union FUST have agreed to provide students with better information about Tilburg’s housing market and their rights as tenants. But how can they ensure that students actually find this information and know where to turn when they encounter problems?

Students need to know where they stand in Tilburg’s housing market. Alongside building more housing, this is a key commitment in the Tilburg Student Housing Covenant. The agreement was signed in late 2025 by Tilburg’s educational institutions, the municipality, student organisations and student housing providers.

What constitutes a reasonable rent? What rights do students have, and where can they turn if they encounter problems in the housing market? Educational institutions, including Tilburg University, have agreed to inform students about the available student housing options, reliable landlords, and how to avoid scams and fraud.

Educational institutions also inform students about the services provided by the Tilburg Rent Team and the municipality’s Good Landlordship Reporting Centre. Students can turn to these services, for example, with questions about excessively high rents.

Emails and Telephone Campaigns

All students who have registered for a degree programme at Tilburg University receive a series of emails, the university told Univers. Prospective students are also directed to the university’s website. There, they can find information about various landlords and housing insurance, among other things.

According to the university, international students receive extensive information about Tilburg’s housing market. This is done through emails, telephone campaigns and online webinars, which also mention the Tilburg Rent Team.

‘Through the Housing International Office, we have been actively informing prospective international students about housing problems at an early stage of their orientation process for many years,’ a university spokesperson said.

More Is Needed

Student party SAM and student union FUST have also committed themselves, under the covenant, to helping students navigate Tilburg’s housing market. Is that enough? Are the agreements actually helping students overcome the difficulties they face in the local housing market? SAM is not entirely convinced.

SAM says it has proposals to improve communication about the housing market and students’ legal rights. According to the student party, this information should also be available in multiple languages.

‘We greatly appreciate the fact that the covenant is in place,’ says SAM chair Štěpán Bačinský. ‘But the covenant itself does not mean that students are actively informed. Although all partners have made progress, more concrete action is still needed in this area. SAM would like to play an active role in that effort.’

SAM wants to ensure that an efficient platform is established, regularly evaluated and designed to help students find accommodation more easily.

One possibility would be to improve the existing housing page on the university’s website, Bačinský explains. ‘The website should contain all relevant and up-to-date information about housing. In addition to the existing referral to a legal team that can help students with rental disputes, we also want to set up online consultation sessions.’

Following questions from Univers, SAM, FUST and the university have since begun discussions about these improvements.

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