Hard times for students in crowded Melbourne

20.07.2010

Even small accommodations are hard to get in Melbourne.

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"Many students live in houses which are family-sized residences with three, four or five bedrooms and they're living often in numbers like 10, 15 or even 20," Professor Simon Marginson of Melbourne University told The Age. Marginson recently wrote the book International Student Security, based on 200 interviews with students from 35 countries at 11 Australian universities.

Suyong Mahindroo arrived in Melbourne in February. He is completing a master's degree, but has struggled to find suitable accommodation in the city, which is experiencing a boom. "I had a look at a place and it had nowhere to eat. If you cook, you eat on the bed. It was really, really tiny," he said.

He said he'd heard stories all the time of students living in bad conditions. "My roommate's girlfriend knew of someone who was staying with 12 other people in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom place. Thirteen people in one apartment. That is insane."