Students are being urged to check what rights they have before signing any tenancy agreement with a private landlord.
One of Dublin's biggest student accommodation providers, Aparto, is extending its leases to 51 weeks of the year.
That is about 10 weeks longer than a typical rental agreement for someone studying at third-level.
Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has said he is against the move.
Minister Harris said anyone already living in student accommodation will not be forced into a longer lease.
"No matter what any developer or owner of a accommodation decides to do people do have rights as renters," he said.
"They do have rights in terms of notice periods and the likes.
"So, it's not in any way shape of form clear to me that anybody could just usurp those rights. That certainly shouldn't be the case.
"You have to give a notice period; somebody can't tell you, 'You must stay for X period of time' once you give the notice period.
"So I don't think this is clear-cut as it's being presented by elements of industry, and I hope the RTB [Residential Tenancies Board] are in a position to provide clarity," he added.
Aparto has five student accommodation residences across Dublin city.
