Students have been a marginal group and their welfare has not been a concern for Macedonian political parties since the country gained its independence in 1991. The case of the student dormitories in Macedonia exemplifies how the state discriminates against, abandons, and often even instrumentalises marginalized groups. It also converges with questions of class and geographic mobility. The two most common types of migration in Macedonia are external migration to Western Europe or the US — by the end of 2013, 626,312 had already left Macedonia, according to the World Bank — and internal migration from the provinces to cities, especially to Skopje, the capital, where the highest quality education is located. Dormitories are a crucial condition for students from the interior to have access to quality education.
There are 13 student dorms in Macedonia, the last of which was built in 1973. That dorm, the, “Goce Delcev” dormitory, became internationally known during 2014, thanks to the online guerrilla activism of an informal group of students calling itself Operation Student Dorm. It became evident that this one-time marvel of brutalist architecture had become a ruin. More than 1200 students were living between mouldy walls, rotting furniture, faulty elevators, horrific communal bathrooms and corridors where they were subject to cold, and, on several occasions, fires.
In the spring of 2014, photographs of the prison-like living conditions in student dormitories in Macedonia circulated on the internet, making news across the world. The images showed the dorms in Skopje to be derelict and hazardous.
In spite of the attention the photographs received, the response of the Government was at best slow and at worst non-existent. Macedonia has a law on “Student Standards” that regulates the establishment, maintenance and organization of student institutions. The law regulates tuition, scholarship, food, and a range of other student needs, including student dormitories. According to the law, the governmental body in charge of the student dorm admission process is the State Educational Inspectorate, supervised by the Ministry of Education. The photographs showed that both of these bodies have fallen scandalously short in implementing the law. The conditions in the dormitories were one of several issues underlying the mass student protests in Macedonia in 2014. Yet the protests did not change the government’s lack of attention or action.
The appalling conditions in student dorms are part of a much larger picture of centralization and disregard towards marginalized groups from the provinces. The dormitories’ neglect is a form of class warfare: the student dorm is a place where you have, concentrated and isolated, large numbers of working class young people from the countrysides.
The student dorms are large enough to house only a small percentage of the student body. In the open call for student dorm applications for 2016/2017, student dorms in Macedonia had capacities for just 5612 students, 4141 of them in the capital. The number of students enrolled in 2015 was 58 896. The numbers show that the vast majority of students are forced to seek more expensive private apartment accommodation. Here they are left on their own.
In spite of the horrific conditions in the dorms, there is intense competition for spaces, as they offer the only pathway for students from poorer backgrounds to be able to afford studies in the capital.
Photographs from the Goce Delcev dormitory“
Dorms are required to accept students using the following criteria: 40% of spaces are supposed to go to students whose families have an income lower than the average minimum wage, or to orphans, special needs students, students coming from social care families, or students whose parents are unemployed. 25% of spaces are reserved for students who excel at university, and finally 35% of the spaces are for full-time undergraduate students.
However, while such rules exist, in reality, who gets into the dorms is often decided by informal practices. Studies have shown multiple irregularities in the way rooms are assigned. One such study showed that, according to student testimonies, “party connections, illegal allocation of dorm rooms and manipulation of the accommodation list are the most pervasive forms of corruption.” According to a study by Youth Educational Forum, 73% of students who live in student dorms are aware that beds are assigned to people who are activists of a particular political party.
A general lack of transparency in the criteria for who gets in is a constant problem, as are several forms of financial misdeeds. State dorms regularly send invoices to the Ministry of Education as if their entire capacities were filled, when in reality they are not — and rooms are often taken by students and other persons not disclosed in the final accommodation list. Dorms charge students administrative fees, general damage costs, and fees for cultural entertainment, none of which are prescribed by law, and no reports are made as to where and how this money is spent.
State student dorms are also severely underfunded, making proper upkeep impossible. The Ministry of Education is required to contribute 50% of the established price of real costs (the other 50% are covered by the dorm residents) although it is by no means up to date — it has been calculated on the basis of standards and norms for these types of services back in 2002. Recently, it was reported that the dormsitories have accumulated more than 4,5 million euros worth of debt.
The alternative: private accommodation
Market prices for real estate have increased steadily since 2008, and as have the number of apartments on offer in the last 13 years. (Apartment growth is bigger than population growth.) Yet 29% of citizens have never moved out of their family homes, indicating reduced mobility. Urbanization means that there should be plenty of apartments available to students. Yet the high cost of rents are not adequately factored into the budget for student scholarships.
A typical monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment might cost around 200 EUR, but 200 EUR or less is also a typical wage that a student might received working full-time in a restaurant or shop. It is thus common for students to live with multiple roommates. The state scholarship system, established in 1997, covers only a tiny portion of the student population, and is by no means adequate: 3000 denars (or 50 EUR) monthly for ten months a year, or 2000 denars (less than 40 EUR) monthly as student credit. The number of scholarships granted by the Ministry of Education for the school year of 2013/2014 covered only 5.6 % of the 51,278 students that enrolled in universities that same year.
The VMRO-DPMNE led government that was in power for the last 11 years left the situation for student housing in utter ruin. Several populist measures have been implemented in the last several years, in response to public pressure and a rise in the student organizing. These include a policy of free transport for full-time students, enacted in 2014, and the renovation of one of the most decrepit blocks in the Goce Delcev dormitory. Many students understandably regard these measures with scepticism, just as they view the hasty payment of 10 months worth of unpaid monthly scholarship during the electoral campaign. Late and bulk scholarship payments have indeed long been the norm, causing students extreme financial stress.
The renovation of the Goce Delcev student dormitory was a promise of several successive VMRO-DPMNE election campaigns. In the end, only a single block was renovated, beginning in 2014 and finishing around the time the party lost power. No students have been formally housed there yet, and there is continued uncertainty concerning the admission process.
The SDSM (Social democrats) government now in power has made several promises regarding high education reforms, though student housing and the condition of student dorms have not been a priority. There is a short paragraph in the party platform outlining an idea to increase state help for youth by building a student city within Skopje featuring “new, modern architectural designs, and large buildings such as sports centres, reading rooms, libraries, restaurants, cinemas and fitness centres”; building campuses in Bitola, Stip and Tetovo; introducing a “new student discount card for on campus services, public transport, national and state institutions, sports and cultural events of public character”; supporting state stipends; rewarding companies that give a percentage of their earnings for scholarships; and subsidizing public transport for all people under 29.
Yet the situation is past its boiling point. The new government should adopt concrete and timely measures. State dormitories whose neglect has made them hazardous should be closed down for renovations, and private accommodations should be subsidized in the interim. Students are entitled to start living with dignity in the here and now, not rely on vague promises for yet more megalomaniac projects for the future.
Author: Anastasija Petrevska
This article was originally published in Bilten with the title Studenti s periferije na vječnoj margini makedonskog društva
