© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский TOMSK, Sep 22 – RIA Tomsk. The
number of places in student dormitories at the campus on the left bank
of Tomsk may be increased to 20,000 in the future, Rector of Tomsk State University (TSU) Eduard Galazhinsky said in an interview with
journalists from Tomsk media.
Earlier it was reported that
in July 2021 during his visit to Tomsk, Prime Minister Mikhail
Mishustin announced the allocation of 18 billion rubles for the
inter-university campus in the Tomsk region. Together with private
investment, the construction cost is estimated at 31 billion. Housing
for 10,000 students, an engineering center, sports and entertainment
infrastructure and R'n'D centers of major companies are planned at the
campus on the left bank of the Tom River.
"We have been
assuming and discussing with colleagues that this is the first phase of
construction of the campus. There is a potential for expansion up to 20
thousand places. It is understandable that the investor is worried
whether the 10 thousand seats will be filled, because we need a lot of
money for the construction. We need to understand that this project is
the largest in Russia in terms of campus construction", – Galazhinsky
said.
© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский
As the regional Department of Education informed the
RIA Tomsk news agency, today the need for student accommodation places
amounts to seven thousand. By 2025, a deficit of 25,000 places is
predicted.
"At TSU now are about one and a half to two
thousand students in need (of dormitories). But we have a Soviet legacy
in terms of dormitories, and unfortunately, students often live with
four people in a room. But the norms are already different: we are
building a new dormitory with the expectation that two people should
live in a room. If we bring everyone up to the norms, then a rough
estimate is about 17 thousand people who need places in dormitories", –
Galazhinsky commented.
He added that the development of
the student housing sector in Tomsk could also go "in the logic of
rental housing". "The goal is to increase the popularity of Tomsk – to
bring students from abroad and the regions here. And along the way, the
rental housing market will grow. A private dormitory? Why not? They
exist all over the world," Galazhinsky stressed.