At the start of the 2025-2026 academic year, more than 152,000 students in Uzbekistan lived in rented apartments. This was announced by deputy Shukhrat Yakubov on August 18 during a meeting of the Legislative Chamber discussing a draft law on simplifying registration of citizens by place of residence and stay.
Citing data from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, he stated that in the 2025-2026 academic year, a total of 741,483 students are enrolled in full-time education at 202 higher education institutions in the country. Of these, about 441,000 (59%) live in their own homes or with close relatives and commute to study.
Another 102,000 students live in university dormitories, and more than 44,000 reside in student housing built under public-private partnerships. Over 152,000 (approximately 20.5% of the total) rent housing.
“Today, more than 152,000 of our students live in rented apartments. It is precisely from the standpoint of protecting their interests that a norm on rented housing was included in the draft law,” said Shukhrat Yakubov.
The draft law aims to expand the circle of students to whom the social norm for housing space does not apply during temporary registration. While in the first reading the relevant benefit mainly applied to university students and places in dormitories, by the second reading it has been extended to students of secondary specialized and professional educational institutions.
Additionally, since a significant portion of students actually live in rented apartments, rented housing has also been included in the document.
During the discussion, a concern was raised: could such a benefit lead to an excessive number of students being registered in a single apartment?
According to Colonel Ulugbek Mirzakambarov, First Deputy Head of the Migration and Personalization Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, this issue was discussed with practitioners and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. The MIA concluded that applying the benefit to rented housing would not cause problems in practice and would allow resolving the issue of registering large numbers of students.
“About 70% of students are not provided with dormitories, so they are forced to live in rented apartments. Typically, students rent a home in groups of four or five,” he said.
According to him, including rented apartments in the new norm should solve the problems of many students with temporary registration and reduce the risk of bringing them to administrative responsibility for non-compliance with registration requirements.
The draft law was developed on the initiative of a group of deputies and was previously conceptually approved in the first reading on August 11. During preparation for the second reading, its main provisions were preserved, but a number of norms were expanded taking into account deputies' proposals.
One of the main changes concerns the application of the social norm for housing space during temporary registration.
In the alternative version, the exemption from this requirement was provided only for university students and places in dormitories. By the second reading, the circle of beneficiaries was expanded: now it should also apply to students of secondary specialized and professional educational institutions.
According to the speaker, this amendment will allow additionally taking into account the interests of more than 100,000 young people. In particular, over 37,000 students study at 92 academic lyceums in the country.
Deputies approved the law in the second reading.
Source: www.gazeta.uz