Talking Points: should it be compulsory for all university students to live in a dorm for at least one year?

Living in a university dorm is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You cannot do it at any other time – not when you go to work, and not when you retire. 

Just think of the freedom you will enjoy and the fun you can have with your friends without being watched by anyone! 

Students who live in a dorm will become more familiar with the university environment. University will feel like home for them, helping to reduce their stress levels. Also, they would get to learn more about their batch mates and lecturers. They can make more friends and build better relationships with their peers. Overall, this is a great idea.

Obviously, university students living in dormitories can learn to get along with one another and become more mature.

While doing projects with partners, they can learn to deal with different opinions and accept their judgments with an open mind. This is essential to their future careers. 

Thus, living in a dorm can university students become responsible adults when they grow up.

Definitely yes. By staying in a dorm for a year, university students will become more independent. They can learn to cook, take care of themselves when they get sick, and do their own laundry. 

Students will become less reliant on their parents, both regarding their education and psychologically. Knowing that nobody is there to help them, they will have to handle the issues on their own. Being away from their parents can also train university students to adapt to a new environment which is very different from home.

They may also have to share a room with someone, which can help to strengthen their social skills and make new friends at the same time. This is a wonderful idea.

I think it’s necessary. They have to learn to get along with their classmates, which will strengthen their interpersonal skills. Also, if your roommates are good students, their attitude towards learning will also rub off on you. So why not live in college dorms?

I don’t think it should be compulsory for university students to live in a dorm for at least one year. Some students may think the dorms are unclean, and there may not be enough places for all the students. Also, because the dorms are usually very small, there may be disputes between roommates.

The rent for dorms is also not cheap, and not every family can afford to pay it. Another issue is necessity. Those who live far away from their university should be given priority, instead of blindly allocating it to every first-year student. I believe students who are interested in dorm life they can apply instead of making it compulsory.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to make dorms compulsory because there aren’t enough dorms to accommodate all of them. We should instead reserve them for the students who live very far away from their university so they can save time. This would make more sense than forcing everyone to live there, even if they don’t it.

Some may argue that living in the dorm is convenient for students to get to school and gives them with more time to socialise with peers. However, I don’t think this idea should be encouraged as they may lose quality time with their parents. Also, it may impose a heavier financial burden on them, as some less well-off families are not able to afford additional expenses. Another concern is the practicality of the measure. It is not practical due to the limited space of the campus. Building more dormitories also requires more expenses and resources from the university. These resources should rather be allocated to improving the quality of education.

In our next Talking Points, we’ll discuss:

We are now accepting your answers for this topic. To take part, email your answer with your name, age, and school, along with a nice, clear selfie (make sure it’s not blurry), to [email protected] by lunchtime on Monday. Don’t forget to include “Talking Points” in the subject line.