Royal Roads University is getting a quarter-million-dollars from the Province to look at increasing access to post secondary education and training for fast-growing communities on the West Shore and in Sooke.
Royal Roads will look at program delivery options for themselves, Camosun College, and the University of Victoria, and will be based on need.
Langford Mayor Stew Young says with rising costs, it's important to make its easier for students to attend post-secondary closer to home -- and notes the West Shore has a lower-than-average rate of high school students going on to College or University:
"We're 19% under the average of kids that are graduating out of the West Shore and not moving on to post secondary education. So that's a problem and we need to solve that somehow, and I think a lot of it is the because of the opportunities for first and second year university you have to go outside of our community."
Young notes Langford is one of the fastest growing regions in the province, and Sooke is also growing, which means the need for a campus is increasing. He says it's important that the province, and particularly Advanced Education Minister Melanie Mark, is so supportive of the plan.
He hopes the report will be done in 3 to 4 months, with solutions coming within a year.