Shipping containers could be used to house students due to accommodation crisis

Converted shipping containers may be the short term answer to the lack of student accommodation, with the Higher Education Authority(HEA) said to be considering the option.

The lack of accommodation for students has been a major problem for a number of years now, with Dublin particularly short of living spaces and Maynooth University also suffering from a lack of affordable housing for their attendees.

The introduction of shipping containers could be used, with each container being stacked on top of each other to ensure that they are easy to insulate, cheap to assemble and provide a quick fix to the problem..

Colleges in Berlin, Stockholm and Amsterdam already use such units for housing students, while a new student village in Glasgow which stacks metal boxes on top of each other has provided living space for 500 students.

The Sunday Independent today report that the Department of Education may look into such an idea, though any such plans could be hampered by planning regulations.

The containers, if they were to be used, would provide one bedroom, a sitting room/kitchen and a bathroom once furnished, and they would be given an 'external finish' to make them more appealing.