Between limited budgets, dorms not suited to their needs, and unhealthy food choices, Romanian students face major challenges in trying to effectively manage their lifestyles and academic performance.
For some students, only unhealthy food alternatives are accessible. Photo: Shutterstock
Student life can be a real adventure and a gateway to knowledge, a world full of opportunities, encounters that can change the course of life, or the period in which some of the most beautiful friendships are made, in which nights spent studying become a habit, and the coffee drunk in a hurry between classes, one of the few moments of respiro of the day. But beyond this charm, the years spent as a student also come with burdens: from the low budget and busy schedule to accommodation in insufficient and inadequate space and an inappropriate or even unhealthy diet.
At a time when the organism is still developing, and the ability to learn is essential to ensure a better future, many students in Romania (in total, 544,623 students were enrolled in the academic year 2023-2024) are faced with great financial difficulties that are also reflected in the way they feed their bodies. In fact, 29% of students claim to come from families with limited or insufficient financial resources to cover basic needs, with 57% of their monthly income (including money, goods and free services) coming from family or their life partner, according to the report “Social and Economic Conditions of Student Life in Europe – EUROSTUDENT 8 (2021-2024)”, in which 25 countries, including Romania, participated.
An unbalanced diet
Difficult financial conditions are only one of the causes that lead to inappropriate and unhealthy eating habits among students. Other decisive factors are the lack of conditions for cooking and the time necessary to do so, as well as the lack of knowledge about organizing a budget or healthy nutrition.
“Weekend Adevărul” spoke with the vice-president of the Romanian Students’ Union (External Relations), Alexandru Streinu, licensed generalist nurse and accredited nutrition technician, in order to better understand the phenomenon of student nutrition: from their eating habits to the (sometimes dangerous) conditions in which he must cook. “The diet of students in Romania is, in general, very unbalanced and is influenced by the limited budget they have, the chaotic schedule – we’re talking about an overloaded schedule – and, last but not least, the lack of education regarding healthy nutrition. Many students rely on fast food, convenience store food – processed food – which, after all, is the cheapest and easiest to procure, but unfortunately does not provide adequate nutritional intake “, he explained.
Also, when it comes to college snacks, healthy alternatives are not at the forefront due to both the budget and access to them. “Between classes, many students choose fast snacks which, unfortunately, are not very healthy and do not provide good nutritional intake. We are talking here about bagels or fast food, which are the most affordable options. I’ve noticed that there are vending machines around college campuses that are loaded with low-nutrition products like chips, snacks, and energy drinks. These products are not at all beneficial for students’ health, especially in the context of a long schedule and daily stress”explained the vice-president of the Romanian Students’ Union.
Low budget, the main reason
In general, students who do not live with their parents allocate the largest part of their budget/monthly income (including support in the form of goods and services) to accommodation expenses, namely 29%, and to food, they allocate 26% of their income. In addition, for 18% of students, housing costs are a real burden, as they end up covering more than 40% of their monthly budget. In this context, many students in Romania face great difficulties in ensuring a healthy diet.
“The main reason for unbalanced diet among students is the limited budget. Many students fail to get a job during their study years due to their busy schedules. Thus, they rely on the cheap products they find in supermarkets and those that can be prepared quickly. Unfortunately, not all dorms are equipped with kitchens where students can prepare their own food, so many turn to food that doesn’t involve a lot of effort to prepare.”Alexandru Streinu also pointed out.
In the context where more than 70% of students do not live with their parents, many have to work to cover at least part of their monthly expenses. Thus, 42% of students in Romania were working in the academic semester of the spring-summer 2023 period, when the data analyzed in the mentioned study were collected. Most of them – 80% – had taken the job to cover their living costs, and over 50% because otherwise they would not have been able to afford to be students. At the same time, students who do not live with their parents have, on average, 21 hours of classes per week (the second highest number of hours), and those who do not work at all have even 22 hours. Also, students allocate another 17 hours a week to study outside of classes, so that many of them, even if they wanted to work even part-time, would not be able to do it because of the very busy schedule, and if would sacrifice many hours of study time. In fact, 1 in 3 students in the 25 countries would like to study less, according to Eurostudent.
Although, as a percentage, the number of students facing very serious or severe financial difficulties has decreased slightly in recent years, still 20% of them cannot afford a major unexpected expense. Busy with worries and with little free time at their disposal, students place low importance on nutrition, especially in the first years of their university career. For many of them, the home package remains the main option. “Most of the classmates come home with packages at the end of the week, and the parents take care of that. For those who live in cities further from the university center, packages are sent by train or minibus, and students pick them up from train stations or bus stations. This practice is very common among students staying at the dormitory”said the vice-president of the Students’ Union.
Home cooking, between necessity and danger
Students living in dormitories try to adapt to living conditions that often do not meet their basic needs, including space for food preparation and storage. “Many students use portable stoves and cook directly in their dorm room because kitchens are usually one per floor or hallway, but these are more offices where students eat, not fully equipped kitchens, and many dorms lack these spaces with perfection”said Alexandru Streinu. In other words, the lack of adequate space leads many students to put into practice various improvisations which, due to the old electricity networks in the dormitories, can sometimes cause incidents.
In the autumn of this year, just a few days before the start of the academic year, a fire broke out in the P22 dormitory of the Politehnica University of Bucharest. Although the university management claims that an old refrigerator that overheated was the cause of the fire, the students blame the old electrical installations in the dormitories.
Even if sometimes improvisations end up being dangerous, they are often the only solution
The general administrative director of the Politehnica University of Bucharest, Mihai Corocăescu, told “Adevărul” that the students “They buy their extension cords from the market because they are cheaper, but they don’t realize that these products can become dangerous. They prepare their food using all sorts of improvised and questionable devices. They cook in their rooms or even in the hall of the dormitories using hotplates or stoves. Plug in various appliances handed down from generation to generation. Look at the ad groups. But we offer them canteens where they can eat. They have canteens on campus, they have canteens grouped by faculties. We have a canteen both in the Rectorate and in Leu”. On the other hand, not all student dormitories have canteens located nearby, so for many of them, the cheapest and most convenient way to eat something cooked and maybe even healthier is to cook in their room.
Also, Alexandru Streinu explained the fact that “many of the state hostels do not have properly equipped kitchens, so students improvise in their rooms, usually at the entrance. This practice increases the risk of accidents, given the quality and age of the devices used. Many dormitories are old, built with outdated electrical systems, and student safety is put at risk because of this. I have noticed that many colleagues prefer to leave the state dormitories and move to private ones for this very reason. In addition, the dorm kitchens are not properly equipped – they have no stoves or refrigerators – and students rely on recycled appliances from fellow graduates”.
Between the devil and the deep sea
Beyond these appliances, even six students can live in a dormitory room, each with their own laptop and phone, plus other appliances necessary for living, so the risk of overloading the electrical installation is not only represented by a stove or a stove older generation. And in the residences in Regie, the risk is even greater because the buildings were built in the 60s and 70s, and the electrical installation no longer copes with the new energy consumers. “In order to solve this situation, the entire project of the electrical installation should be rethought, head to tail. Basically, the whole thing would have to be redone, from scratch. But it is very difficult to get an ATR (no – technical connection approval) from Enel (us – now PPC). To give you an idea: if a newly built home now has 650 kW of installed power, an old home only has 80. Even if we replace old components with new ones, the installed power through the technical approval given by Enel remains the same”also explained the general administrative director of the Politehnica University of Bucharest.
Until then, Alexandru Streinu encourages students to collaborate with the member associations of the Romanian Students’ Union to report the problems identified with the electrical systems. “In some dormitories there are heads of dormitories appointed by the students themselves through voting. We recommend students to report such situations both to the dormitory administrator and to the university management, precisely to assess the risks and intervene preventively. It is essential to act in time to avoid incidents and create a safe environment for students”claimed the student representative for “Weekend Adevărul”.
However, starting this academic year, the dormitory room rental contract concluded between the Politehnica University of Bucharest and the students explicitly states that “students are not allowed to cook in the rooms or hallways of the dormitories and are obliged to keep the offices used for cooking and washing clean”but also the fact that “the total sum of the power of electrical equipment used within a dormitory room should not exceed the maximum installed power set at 1.00 kW per room”.
