People want to live here: between our two communities, we had a 15.4% growth in the population from 2011 to 2016.
Cranbrook’s College of the Rockies planning further expansion
College plans to expand programs and hopes to add 96 on-campus spaces to meet student housing demand

Over the past several years, College of the Rockies (COTR) in Cranbrook, B.C., has invested heavily into its programs and infrastructure. The latest project, a $10 million trades facility, will be fully built by the end of April. The college will then be able to take an additional 100 full-time trades students every year beginning in the fall of 2018.
According to Dave Walls, president and CEO of COTR, the institution is now looking to expand other programs, with priority given to the needs of the region—its technology, healthcare and early childhood education sectors.
Enrolment at COTR has gone up. During the Fall 2017 semester, there were more than 1,800 students, a growth of around 14.6 per cent from the same time the previous year. Cranbrook’s lower cost of living and the ability to transfer easily to universities in B.C. and Alberta have been identified as contributing factors in the growth.
With increased enrolment and expanding programs comes the need, however, for additional student housing. The college plans to address this issue by doubling its on-campus residence options.
Click here to read more and to listen to a sound clip from Walls.