ISLAMABAD: Women studying at the National University of Modern Languages (Numl) are facing a shortage of accommodation after the university, whose students have already been facing a shortage of hostel facilities in this academic session, decided to prioritise accommodation for Chinese students.

Sources said students apply to live in hostels in large numbers every year and of them a few dozen are provided accommodation. However, this semester, the university has decided to prioritise female students from China.

The situation has created difficulties for students from far flung parts of the country who were admitted to the university.

University spokesperson says priority accorded to Chinese students under memorandum of understanding

“A few days ago, when I was interviewed for hostel facilities, I was very excited. I thought I would be allotted accommodation on campus, but yesterday we were told that there was no accommodation available for us because of the Chinese students,” a student said.

She said students are now looking at private hostels. Sources said there were hardly two dozen spacesavailable this year, all of which were allotted to Chinese students.

A university official praised the administration’s decision to give preference to Chinese students, but said Numl should construct more hostel accommodation for women.

“We only have one hostel, which is insufficient to accommodate female students. At least two or three more hostels are needed,” he said.

He added that the university could explore various options as a stop-gap, including utilising Punjab government property adjacent to the university for this purpose if an understanding could be reached between the provincial government and Numl.

University spokesperson Mohammad Bilal confirmed that female students from China were being prioritised for hostel accommodation. He said the university was bound to prioritise them due to a memorandum of understanding with the relevant Chinese institution, and Pakistani students are accorded the same priority.

Almost all of Islamabad’s public sector universities have been facing a shortage of hostel accommodation, while most private universities do not offer the facility at all.

The Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology and the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics do not provide any living facilities for students on campus, while high ranking institutions such as Quaid-i-Azam University and International Islamic University Islamabad do not have enough room to house all their students.

As a result, many students end up living in private hostels.

Many non-federal chartered institutions whose main chapters are in other provinces and only have sub-campuses in the capital also do not provide living arrangements for students. These include Preston University, Hamdard University, the University of Lahore, Sarhad University and more.

The shortage of hostels at universities was also taken up by a National Assembly standing committee, in which Islamabad MNA Ali Nawaz Awan said the government should not pass new charters of universities until they have sufficient space to accommodate students.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2019