Finding accommodation in Bologna
The Sais (Student Accommodation and Information Service) is the office appointed by the University of Bologna to assist Socrates students who wish to live in the main campus of Bologna.
Finding accommodation is one of the most difficult issues to deal with for a student wishing to study in Bologna. As a matter of fact Bologna is a relatively small town and hosts one of the biggest among the Italian Universities: the resident population counts about 370,000 units and the registered students are about 100,000. Most students, moreover, would like to live in the historical centre (which is an extremely limited area) and this makes the accommodation search even more difficult. In addition to that those exchange students who only spend a few months in our town have a further problem: landlords prefer to rent their apartments to the same student/group of students for a few years, so that they do not need to find new tenants after a short time. This situation results on one hand in a scarcity of accommodation offers for international students and on the other hand prices are quite high (Bologna is one of the most expensive towns in Italy as far as rents are concerned, coming after only Milan and Rome).The University and SAIS office try to get round this situation by making a certain number of student residence rooms available to the exchange students, but the problem is that they too, do not cover all requests. Therefore the majority of the students usually find accommodation in the private sector.
To sum up: finding accommodation in Bologna is difficult but not impossible. You need to be patient and determined. Seven/ten days of ongoing search are often needed to find suitable accommodation, therefore it is extremely important, before getting to Bologna, to book some temporary accommodation for the first period and contact the SAIS office (see Support Request Form) to get individual assistance by appointment in the office. Here the staff will give counselling and practical advice to make the accommodation search as short as possible. As a matter of fact the SAIS office is the reference point for accommodation for all exchange students: as far as the halls of residence made available by the University or the Ceur Foundation we take care of the students' applications and reservations and as far as the search for accommodation in the private sector we assist all exchange students with our accommodation service BUSSOLA.
Finding accommodation in the other campuses of the University of Bologna
Besides the main campus in Bologna, our University also has campuses in other towns of Romagna, that is: Ravenna, Forlì, Cesena e Rimini. Here are the contact details of the accommodation offices in Forlì and Ravenna.
Cooperativa LIBRA, Via Circonvallazione al Molino 14, tel. 0544/215651, fax 0544/211840, e-mail: libra@cooplibra.it , website www.cooplibra.it.
