entrepreneurship, dormitory problem for university students

1. Social Problem & Solution

As our final course project we would like to address to dormitory problems in universities. Since it is a huge debate topic in almost every country, we tried to come up with a plan which could be interpreted by other countries as well. We plan to construct a modern, functional and efficient dormitory for university students regardless of which university these students attends or their financial status. Our main innovative tool for this dormitory plan is that students will be able to work at the dorm to cover their debts and we will be offering a solid, fair financial plan for the students who are having financial problems. We plan to encourage every students to use their capabilities in their advantage based on their educations. We plan to make deal with government and banks in order to come up with student version of mortgage loans. On top of solving shelter problem for students, we hope to solve some of the youth unemployement problems.

While university attempt ratios and university capacities increases, infrastructure problems emerge even with faster rate. Universities are generally located at the most expensive locations but there arent any dormitories to shelter those students in nearby. As we analyzed the problems related to dormitories we found out that most of the problems are connected to financial shortages. There isnt enough capital to construct a modern dormitory for low prices, but this statements isnt true in our belief. Students are almost broke at their university ages, this is a known fact but the good thing is after they graduated from university their odds of getting a job versus high school graduates is much higher. So we would like to use this fact to students advantages. We would like to construct a dormitory with minimum costs and then we would like to present different job services for students to pay their rents via working at the dorm.

Dormitories has various jobs that could be done by students. Basic jobs are sanitation related jobs, security related jobs and also cafeteria jobs. Almost more than thirthy percent of students living in our dorm will benefit from working at basic jobs. We foresee that sanitation related jobs will not be prefferred by most of the students. In order to prevent this problem we plan to develop a schedule based method for the basic jobs. Students will take turns in sanitation, security and cafeateria jobs weekly, therefore they will be more aware of the responsibilities of each job and they will learn to respect the jobs of others.

Another major ticket for the meal is private teaching. Many of the students are giving private lessons to their colleagues for cash. We would like to systemize and legalize under “Work & Dorm” brand. We will be saving large area for library and study halls which are planned to be multifunctional, in other words those rooms could be used for teaching as well. We estimate that fifteen to twenty five percent of the students can work in this field.

Also we would like to encourage the students to build start-ups. We know that most of the start-ups are build around universities so why not at our “Work & Dorm”. We feel that it is one of the best places to start a spin-off company because you are surrounded by students, which in fact means you have the advantage to reduce the costs of labor to minimum. We believe that “Work & Dorm” will serve as hub for students from different universities all around Istanbul, decked with various usefull information. These students will push each other to success and they are the most creative minds of the society, we will just encourage them to use their skills for their societies good and their own good. We estimate that two to five percent of the students will be able to pay their debts in working spinoff companies.

We know that engineering and computer sciences students can deal with basic technology based problems while they are continuing their education. We would like to create jobs for those students in our dorm as a preparation stage for working life, it could be seen as internship. Many students has problems with their technological devices which could be solved by electrical and mechanical engineers. In addition to personal technological devices, there will be countless maintenance problems in dormitory, which could be solved by engineers after a brief tutorial. We estimate that around ten to fifteen percent of the students living in our dorm will be able to work in this field.

To sum up working/job system in “Work & Dorm”, we would like to form a system which every student use their capabilities upto their full potential. It is something similar to military system where every individual assigned with jobs according to their skills. We foresee that if a student is wants to work for his/her rent, we almost guarantee to find a job suitable for him/her.

Unfortunately issues related to dormitories are not just financial, there are much more important problems such as health and security concerns. Many of the students are not secure at where they live and this is a right for every human being or every Turkish citizen, not just students. In the last two years Turkey has experienced two major fire accidents at dorms at Adana and Istanbul which led to more than students to die. It is a huge sign of neglect and we hope to prevent those kinds of accidents by forming an examplatory dorm system.

Many of the problems emerged from dormitories leads to different topics, generally funded by political players. Recently Turkey has experienced a coup attempt by Fetullah Gulen and its terrorist organization FETO. Almost every intellectual Turkish citizen knows that seeds of the organization were planted at dormitories, backed with religious campaigns. Students who are experiencing financial problems at universities often finds the solution at religious communities where they are forced to do things which they don’t believe in. Unfortunately they don’t have any other choice because there isnt anywhere else where they could find somewhat “safe” location for shelter for three hundred turkish liras. A recent interview with such a students, F.D., tells to the reporter that he is forced to move out because of what he weared(he wore jeans). In the last year 821 dormitories and student houses were closed due to their connection with terrorist organizations. Imagine the volume of the society, it is too big to neglect. We feel that government will look on our project positively after 15th of july so called coup attempt and we hope to get aid from government in both construction and location stage. Moreover as the main innovation tool of our business is our financial model, we hope to form solid legal base for student loans with the right adjustments to banking system for students by government.

7. Marketing Strategy

10. Required Capital, Human & Physical Resources

Resources:

http://www.aljazeera.com.tr/al-jazeera-ozel/universitelinin-bitmeyen-sorunu-yurt

http://www.diken.com.tr/aladagdaki-yurtta-kalan-ogrenciler-yangin-tatbikati-yapilmadi-merdiven-kilitliydi/

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/edirnekapi-kiz-ogrenci-yurdunda-korkutan-yangin-40325937

http://dhgm.meb.gov.tr/yayimlar/dergiler/Milli_Egitim_Dergisi/145/korkmaz.htm