The University of the Sunshine Coast is trialing a new housing arrangement, in which students will live in decommissioned rooms in the Cooinda Aged Care Centre in Queensland (pictured), just next door to the USC campus.
While it might sound strange, the trial isn’t the first of its kind – and there’s a good reason behind it.
Similar programs have been running in Holland, Germany and the US for years, where students live in aged care facility rooms (which are perfectly liveable but no longer up to aged care standards) for a lower rent.
The payoff is that students are then be expected to do volunteer work with residents to help them socialise – for example, have meals with them or play a board game.
We think it’s a fantastic idea. In fact, it’s already been brought up in the Royal Commission.
At a public community forum in Melbourne earlier this month, one speaker suggested to Commissioners that the government could incentivise younger people to work as volunteers by reducing their HECS debt in exchange for hours helping or spending time with residents.
A win-win situation.
