More Than 152,000 Uzbek Students Rent Housing

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — More than 152,000 students in Uzbekistan were living in rented apartments at the start of the 2025/2026 academic year, according to figures presented by lawmaker Shukhrat Yakubov at a meeting of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis on 18 August. He cited data from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation.

According to the ministry, 741,483 students were enrolled in full-time programmes at 202 higher education institutions across the country at the beginning of the academic year. About 441,000 of them, or 59%, lived in their own homes or with close relatives and travelled to their institutions for classes.

Another 102,000 students lived in university dormitories, while more than 44,000 stayed in dormitories built under public-private partnerships. More than 152,000 students, or about 20.5% of the total, rented housing.

The issue of rented housing arose during consideration of a bill aimed at simplifying the registration of citizens at their place of residence and temporary stay. Yakubov said the relevant provision had been included in the bill to protect the interests of students living in rented apartments.

The bill proposes expanding the list of students who would be exempt from the statutory housing-space limit when registering at their place of temporary stay. The initial version of the bill primarily provided for the exemption for university students and places in student dormitories.

Before the second reading, lawmakers proposed extending the provision to students at secondary specialised and vocational education institutions. Rented apartments were also added to the bill because a significant share of students actually live in such housing.

During the discussion, lawmakers raised concerns about the possibility of registering an excessively large number of students at a single address.

Colonel Ulugbek Mirzakambarov, first deputy head of the Migration and Personalisation Department under Uzbekistan’s Interior Ministry, said the issue had been discussed with representatives of the sector and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation.

He said extending the provision to rented housing should not create practical problems. According to Mirzakambarov, about 70% of students do not have access to dormitories and are therefore forced to rent apartments, generally in groups of four or five.

Including rented apartments among the types of housing covered by the new provision is intended to simplify students’ registration at their place of temporary stay and reduce the risk of them facing administrative liability for violating registration requirements.

The expanded exemption will also cover students in secondary specialised and vocational education. According to figures presented during the discussion, more than 37,000 students study at 92 academic lyceums across the country. The speaker said the new provision would additionally address the interests of more than 100,000 young people.

The bill was drafted on the initiative of a group of lawmakers and conceptually approved in its first reading on 11 August. After being revised to take lawmakers’ proposals into account, its main provisions remained unchanged, while several provisions were expanded.

Following the discussion, the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis approved the bill in its second reading.