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Midlands Correspondent
THE Midlands State University has started allocating accommodation to its students at its new hostels whose construction was completed recently, an official said yesterday. In an interview, MSU registrar, Mr Erasmus Mupfiga, said the new hostels were ready for use by students. “We are just putting up final touches on the new hostels. We have bought some additional furniture for the hostels. The hostels are expected to accommodate more than 2 000 students,” he said.

He said the new hostels will ease accommodation shortage at the institution whose students were forced to rent rooms in Senga and Nehosho suburbs where up to six students shared a room.

The MSU infrastructure formerly belonged to Gweru Teachers’ College.

“While we may not be able to accommodate all the students within the university campus, the completion of the new hostels is definitely going to ease accommodation challenges that our students have been facing,” he said.

Meanwhile, a survey by Chronicle in the nearby Senga suburbs revealed that most landlords have not increased their rentals for students from last semester’s $50 per head.

Some students interviewed, however, said the $50 per head was still unaffordable.

“While most landlords maintained last semester’s $50 per head, we feel it’s still unaffordable. We want to thank the MSU for constructing new hostels. The development has resulted in rentals in Senga becoming stable for once,” said a level 2:2 student who requested anonymity.

Another student, Mr Trynos Mugari, appealed to landlords in Senga to desist from overcrowding them in rooms.
“The demand for accommodation is not as high as it used to be in the past before the construction of new hostels by MSU. We hope the landlords will stop overcrowding us,” he said.