Few university beds in Cagliari, ERSU wants 2800 but students risk disappearing (in 2040)
The ministry takes a photograph of the lodgings, available and missing. The institution raises the bar but a demographic study predicts the collapse of the university populationThe ministry, with a decree last December, established that in Cagliari there are 13,409 away from home without accommodation in university structures: the places available in student houses are just 460 (data updated to 2020). This is why the ERSU in March raised the target threshold for beds, for which new structures must be built: it wants to reach 2,774. The real estate maneuvers have already begun, with the construction of new campuses - underway and announced - and the search for buildings to buy.
But on the other hand there are studies that tell a different reality: Sardinia risks being the region that in 2040 will have suffered the greatest drop in population between 18 and 21 years of age, i.e. of those who could potentially enroll in a university: the projections by Talents Venture, a company that deals with research in support of Italian universities, say that young people in that age group on the island will drop by 33.9% . To this data must be added that of early school leaving and the other of youth emigration, which in Sardinia record very high rates. Hence the question: when the beds are available, will there still be students to fill them?
The controversy over the high rents for student rooms is these days. The protest, with young people camped in squares with tents, has spread to many cities. Something was also seen in Cagliari, but the dispute did not take hold.
The photograph of the housing situation was taken by the Mur, with the December decree signed by the minister Anna Maria Bernini, which dictates the conditions for the distribution of 660 million euros of the Pnrr destined for university housing. Among the attachments, the requirement in each province is reconstructed. In Cagliari the situation is this: 460 places, 13,869 off-site, 13,409 of which are without accommodation in university buildings, 2,314 the target requirement of 20 percent coverage according to the ministry. Cagliari's ERSU aims higher. Some projects – such as the new student house in via Trentino – have not yet started. And in 2040, when perhaps it will be realized, university students could be reduced by a third compared to the current ones.
