“Since the summer months there has been a very high demand on the part of students and their families to be able to rent a room. They are experiencing a lot of difficulties, because the rents are high and the supply is very small”, he claimed.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, the president of the Coimbra academy explained that the average value of renting a room has increased by about 10%.

“In Coimbra, the average value of rents is now around 270 to 290 euros, when before there were rooms at an average of 200 euros per month. The average value of a room has gone up a lot and becomes heavy on the pockets of students' families, which can be reflected in a greater school dropout”, he maintained.

In his opinion, the Government should see what is happening with the market for renting rooms to students.

“In the case of Coimbra, the situation is a little unregulated, with prices increasing in an unreasonable way compared to previous years”, he added.

To help students find accommodation, Associação Académica de Coimbra “has some options, from guiding them to university residences or through the certified habitability project”.

“This certificate has been in great demand every day, we are constantly visiting new rooms and carrying out new inspections, but there is really a lot of demand for the offer that there is”, he said.

The student representative also said that the number of beds available in university residences "is too little" for a city with 25,000 university students.