DUE to an increase in applications from students not only from Guyana and the Caribbean but also from all over the world, the University of Guyana (UG) is experiencing a housing crisis.

“We don’t have enough dorms and the dorms are not how we would like them to be. They are dated,” said Vice-Chancellor of UG, Dr. Paloma Mohamed-Martin.

She brought attention to this issue during a programme hosted recently by GlobeSpan.

Professor Mohamed-Martin remarked, “That is one of the areas we really need to pour some investment into, not only to modernise what we have but to create more,” while emphasising that the university is acting swiftly to address this situation.

The university has three housing complexes, with 160–170 rooms in total.

About five minutes away from UG’s Turkeyen Campus at Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara (ECD), is the Dennis Irvine Hall of Residence, which houses 53 students during the academic year.

Located at the Turkeyen Campus, the New Building Society (NBS) Hall of Residence provides housing during the school year to approximately 16 male students and 22 female students.

The Beharry Hall was constructed at the Turkeyen Campus by the Beharry Group of Companies to house 60 students – 38 females and 22 males. The latter two dorms are operated by donors with the NBS Hall of Residence up for rehabilitation this year.

Students must pay a monthly fee, which differs for domestic and foreign students, in order to access the dorms.

In Guyana’s first-ever trillion-dollar budget which was unveiled in the National Assembly in January, $4.1 billion has been budgeted to support the operations of UG.

The university now in its 60th year of existence, was founded in October 1963 and offers 160-plus programmes in over 60 disciplines in online, face-to-face or blended formats.

It is the largest, oldest, most advanced and only state-owned university with a student population of over 10,000. It also has a campus at Tain in Region Six.

The university is stepping up its focus on becoming one of the leading and most sought-after educational institutions in the world for both staff and students.