Exploring Student Housing Struggles: In-Depth Interviews with Polish Student Dormitory Occupation Strike Participants

Since the fall of communism in 1989, Poland went through a neoliberal shift. It introduced a new type of higher education institutions [HEIs]: private HEIs. While the guarantees of free access to public higher education were kept, they are being increasingly challenged by the growing massification of higher education. Growing processes led to various negative consequences, visible for instance in the financial support for students, such as scholarships and university-owned student housing.

In the last nearly 20 years, the number of beds in student dormitories has been steadily decreasing. This, along with rising prices in private rental, significantly worsened the social situation of students, imposing additional burdens, especially on those from less privileged backgrounds. The additional problems that the students had to overcome to be able to obtain higher education resulted in social dissatisfaction. This displayed itself through various forms of protests. In recent years, Polish universities started to experience student occupation strikes that point to issues of lack of adequate social support from the universities.

We examine the effects of aforementioned processes using in-depth individual interviews carried out on participants of a student occupation strike against the closure of Jowita student dormitory in December 2023 in Poznań, Poland. Occupants’ stories present patterns of struggles that they as students have to endure in order to secure housing during university and, simultaneously, be able to obtain higher education.
The results show their difficult housing situation and the ways in which it affects their ability to study, establish interpersonal relationships, and make a living. Ways of coping with difficult housing conditions will also be presented, as well as participant’s understanding of the general social situation of students.