Trinity Western University (TWU) is a private Christian liberal arts university in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. It is a member of Universities Canada.
Founded in 1962, it enrolls approximately 4,000 students and sits on a suburban-rural 157-acre (64 ha) campus near the historic village of Fort Langley, British Columbia. Trinity Western is Canada’s largest privately funded Christian university. It has a broad-based liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies curriculum, offering 45 undergraduate majors and 17 graduate and post-graduate programs. It has a student to faculty ratio of 16:1 with an average first-year class size of 37 and overall average class size of 15.
Trinity Western is a member of the Royal Society of Canada. Its varsity teams, known as the Spartans, are members of U Sports. According to Universities Canada, the non-profit national organization that represents Canadian universities and colleges, TWU’s domestic tuition is the most expensive of any university in Canada.
Campus
The main campus is located in the rural Township of Langley, British Columbia, occupying 157 acres (0.64 km2) on the edge of historic Fort Langley. Fort Langley, a former fur-trade post of the Hudson’s Bay Company, was selected by Governor Sir James Douglas as the provisional capital of the newly established Colony of British Columbia in 1858. There is a residence hall on campus named in honour of Douglas. The campus is situated about 45 minutes southeast from Vancouver and about 2 hours north from Seattle.
Campus buildings vary in age and style from Hanson Chapel, completed in 1962 (the first building completed on campus), to the Skidmore Hall dormitory, completed in 2017. Today the campus consists of 35 buildings and residence halls that house the university’s various departments and students.
The architecture on campus is inspired by British Columbia, Rural B.C., and the Pacific Northwest. Modern red brick covers Alloway Library, Larsen Atrium, and Stanley Nelson Student Centre at the main part of campus. Other significant buildings on campus include Robert N. Thompson Building which houses the Political Science, History, English, and Geography departments. The newly built and yet to be named Music Building is home to the School of Art, Media + Culture. The Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences are housed in the Neufeld Science Centre, which experienced a major renovation in 2011, and the Vernon Stromback Centre at the east end of campus. In total there are 33 buildings on the university campus.
During President Raymond’s tenure, the university has built the Music Building in 2010, and in 2011 Fraser Hall and the Neufeld Science Centre received major renovations in 2011. In 2012 the Vernon Strombeck Centre received a significant interior and exterior renovation, and in 2013 the prominent Robert N. Thompson building was re-modeled… In September 2017, Trinity Western opened the first new dormitory in twenty-five years, as a result of rising enrollment.
Cafeteria meals are now served in an all-you-care-to-eat style, and three smaller venues around campus offer additional food services.