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Within 24 hours of relocating to British Columbia last week, Christian Marchand chatted up his new doorman, watched cable television, slept in an oversized double bed in his suite and worked up a sweat on an exercise bicycle at the gym in the same building.

Accomplishing that in a day would not be particularly extraordinary had the 19-year-old Montreal native taken up residence in a five-star hotel or a swank apartment rather than a student dormitory.

"My room is bigger than my house," said Mr. Marchand, a first-year public relations and business student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, where he pays $525 a month to live in an on-campus residence hall that is privately owned and operated, and doubles as a hotel and conference centre in the summer.

For decades, dormitory living conjured images of tissue-paper-thin mattresses, communal showers, snoring roommates and flickering fluorescent lights stuffed into a drab cinder-block building with all the personality of a Ministry of Transportation office.

But a surging youth population raised in relative comfort compared with their parents, and increasing competition among higher education institutions to attract them, have prompted some colleges and universities to restructure their residential-life offerings to meet the demands of a new breed of student.

"It's not just about renting a place any more and it's not about bricks and mortar, it's about service," said Michelle Verbrugghe, who as president of the Ontario Association of College and University Housing Officers and director of residences at University of Toronto Scarborough oversaw about 765 students moving into fully furnished and fully wired rooms over the weekend.

Many institutions, particularly community colleges whose expanded course offerings are increasingly drawing students from outside the traditional target areas, have turned to private developers to construct and operate high-end residence halls.

Some of those dorms contain amenities that are garden-variety by emerging standards but luxurious considering what residence halls offered a decade ago. Private bedrooms equipped with thermostats and air conditioning, full kitchens, carpeting and around-the-clock security are hallmarks of the modern dorm.

"Students and parents are expecting more today," said Jason Buick, senior director of operations at Campus Living Centres Inc., which owns and operates the $44-million, 576-bed residence at Thompson Rivers University, as well as 16 other upscale dorms nationwide.

"Students are not coming from homes where they shared a bedroom with a younger sibling," Mr. Buick said. "They had a double bed in their own room and they don't want to downgrade when they go off to postsecondary education."

At Thompson Rivers, Mr. Marchand and his three suitemates each have their own bedroom, share two bathrooms and a full-sized refrigerator, and have access to two barbecues on a patio and an entertainment room that contains vintage and modern video games and a billiards table.

"I looked at residences at other schools and they had bathrooms in the hall for like 20 people," Mr. Marchand said. "When I saw this one, I got excited."

There are no reliable statistics on the number of high-end student residences, but observers say they are rising with the demand for housing. To that end, even private developers unaffiliated with a college or university are snatching up real estate and constructing housing complexes specifically for students.

One such building, a 12-storey, 187-unit facility appropriately named Campus Common, located in downtown Toronto, features singles, doubles and triples with private kitchens and bedrooms and security so tight that residents cannot visit other floors without first getting permission through the lobby.

"Students want a place that their parents won't mind them living in, and they want a place where they can put their yogurt in the fridge and have it be there when they return," said Frank Belerique, vice-president of Horizon Legacy Infrastructure Corp., which built Campus Common.

Five-star student living in Canada lags behind the United States, where private educational institutions are plentiful and have far more flexibility in their contracting processes than the largely government-subsidized system here.

At Texas A&M University, for instance, a resort-like community of three-storey student townhouses includes a pool, basketball courts and white-noise generators for light sleepers. A renovated complex at the University of South Florida now boasts 42-inch high-definition flat-screen televisions in each of its 165 units.

But Canadian universities and colleges are now taking innovative approaches to respond to the demand for student housing.

The University of Winnipeg, whose foothold in drawing students from outside the region is growing every year, has turned to leasing units in an underutilized retirement home off campus.

Kelly Brown, executive director of student relations at the university, said the units are being snatched up by more mature students in search of privacy. "We added 35 more units this year. We didn't even market it and they fill up instantly," Ms. Brown said.

In addition to lining up for souped-up housing, some students are flocking with equal verve to housing that accommodates their social conscience.

Ecovillage, a new residence that opened this month at Nipissing University in North Bay, attempts to enable ecologically conscious living through amenities such as low-flow shower heads. Students are required to sign an agreement to, among other things, limit showers to five minutes and turn off lights when they're not needed - or risk losing their spot in university housing.

The residence, which consists of two six-person townhouses, is one of a handful of so-called sustainable-living dorms in Canada. Many of them, like Ecovillage, were created at the behest of students.

"These students are used to all the comforts and they won't share rooms ...," said Al Carfagnini, executive director of student affairs at Nipissing. "At the same time, they're wanting to get involved in things like Ecovillage. They say, 'I like my space, leave me alone, but let me work within it to save the planet.' "