ITK gets $50M contribution toward Inuit Nunangat University
Grant from the Mastercard Foundation advances progress toward opening Inuit-owned, Inuit-led university
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed says opening the Inuit Nunangat University will help reduce barriers to post-secondary education for Inuit students. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
This story was updated on Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024, at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed says the organization is closer to “fully realizing their vision” for an Inuit Nunangat University after receiving a $50-million contribution from the Mastercard Foundation.
The funding, announced Wednesday, is the “largest private donation made to Inuit” and will be used for academic planning, course development and community engagement, according to a news release from ITK, the national organization representing Inuit in Canada.
The university will be the first of its kind — Inuit-owned and Inuit-governed, with a goal to open by 2030.
In an interview, Obed said Inuit Nunangat University will help reduce barriers to post-secondary education for Inuit by being located closer to students’ home communities and centered on an Inuit world view.
“We are hoping that we can create a university that is an extension of Inuit society and that will be inclusive of Inuit from all regions or whoever else would like to attend the university,” Obed said.
“From the time that a person enters into the classroom, to the types of disciplines they can study, to the supports they receive and the community that they undertake their university studies in, it will all be part of a society that they already understand and know.”
No location has been chosen yet for the school, Obed said, but in 2025 ITK will begin an Inuit Nunangat-wide process across all four regions to determine the best site for the main campus.
There will be one knowledge centre opened in each of the three Inuit regions that are not selected for the main campus.
In the release, ITK estimates it will need a total of $160 million from the public and private sectors to open a main campus and develop initial university degree programs.
Obed said the organization has put in a $50-million request to the federal government in advance of the government’s next budget, and will seek financial support from Inuit treaty organizations, the economic and mining community, and Canadian philanthropic sector.
In June 2021, ITK had announced a partnership with the Mastercard Foundation that included a $1.5 million investment toward the planning of the university.
The foundation is a Canadian charity that promotes access to education for Indigenous Canadian youth and young people in Africa.
Kyle Allen, a spokesperson for Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, said in an email statement Wednesday the minister “applauds ITK for their work towards the creation of the university and looks forward to seeing the next steps.”
“A university, created and operated by Inuit, for Inuit and others, could decisively fulfil a gap in northern post-secondary education,” Allen said.
For the undergraduate academic program, Obed noted there will be two years of multidisciplinary focus on a variety of course topics like Inuktut language studies, self-determination or sovereignty, understanding relationships regarding health and well-being, Inuit history, modern land claims and treaties, and the concept of being a wise person.
After the prerequisites are completed, students can then declare a major or minor degree within a faculty, such as economics or climate studies.
“We’re going to have a real focus on the multidisciplinary and holistic approach to learning, which has been the hallmark for Inuit learning and Inuit knowledge for thousands of years,” Obed said.
“We are hoping to find our place and enrich the opportunities for Inuit students or whomever wishes to come to this institution, and hopefully we can maximize the options students have after they graduate from high school and are looking to further their education for themselves and ultimately for the benefit of their communities.”
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the total estimated cost of the the university.
Who will run this school? Will this be another Oreo organisation, with Inuit decision-makers and a white interior that will run everything else?
And will this even be in Inuktitut?
It would be very difficult to have it as Inuktitut instruction… who gets their dialect. and right now there are far to many of us that say “thats not how its said properly” when someone uses a different dialect.
People need to put aside these differences and stop using English as the default language. Ridiculous how a university modeled on Inuit ways of living and thinking, whatever that means, would not even teach or operate in an Inuit language.
Amazing that you can call out the racism in a comment and that is not acceptable, yet you can be racist in a comment, and that is totally fine here at Nunatsiaq news… what a joke this publication is
Nothing ‘racist’ in any way in that comment. A bit tasteless perhaps, but any racism is just in your head.
‘The [$50 million] funding, announced Wednesday, is the “largest private donation made to Inuit” and will be used for academic planning, course development and community engagement, according to a news release from ITK, the national organization representing Inuit in Canada.’ ~ Natan Obed
“If I were founding a university I would begin with a smoking room; next a dormitory; and then a decent reading room and a library. After that, if I still had more money that I couldn’t use, I would hire a professor and get some text books.” ~ Stephen Leacock
SO much waste at all levels of government, NGOs and non-profit societies. I work hard, you work hard; they waste our efforts.
Seventy-five cents of every taxpayer dollar is wasted. We pay 50% of our income as taxes. Just time and effort alone, nearly 40% of our effort and income is wasted by politicians and bureaucrats
Not everything is about you and tax dollars! The University is about levelling the playing field to give Inuit a chance of getting a university to get improve their situation. Im Inuk that got a university degree and open doors for me!! Except I never got GN job!
According to Statistics Canada, 5.1% of Inuit have a university degree, and another 1.7% have some sort of university certificate or diploma below the bachelor level. So let’s say 6.8%.
Using some statistics from the Nunavut Bureau of Statistics, somewhere around 2% of the population will be 18 years old in any given year.
According to the Census, there are about 71,000 Inuit in Canada. Let’s just say 75,000 in 2030 for simplicity.
So… 2% of 75,000 Inuit is 1500 Inuit that would reach university level age in any given year.
And 6.8% of those people may attend university, which means…
*drum roll*
A total of 102 people may be eligible to be enrolled each year!
Now… Imagine… Where could the university be? Would it be in Iqaluit? What if there’s a student from Aklavik, and a student from Rigolet that would both like to attend?
The student from Rigolet would have to fly: Rigolet>Happy-Valley Goose Bay>Halifax>Ottawa>Iqaluit. The total trip would take about 42 hours and involve 2 overnight stops, at a cost of over $2,000 plus hotels and meals.
The student from Aklavik would have to fly: Aklavik>Inuvik>Yellowknife>Rankin Inlet>Iqaluit. The total trip would take about 55 hours and involve 2 overnight stops, at a cost of about $2,700 plus hotels and meals.
Is this Inuit Nunangat university really going to be where all of the university-eligible students want to attend? That some students may not want to actually attend a reputable university in Halifax, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton?
There was literally a feasibility study done a Nunavut University in 2016 that said it would take 100 years to reach 500 students, the amount required by Universities Canada.
The study also found that the capital cost could be $171 million, not including faculty or student housing, and that it would also cost $16.6 million per year to run. It found that while the average tuition for a student in Canada was $6,191, that a Nunavut university would need to charge $16,600.
What’s going to happen is that they’re going to spend $160 million to build a sub-par post-secondary school with little to no accreditations, attended by probably around 120 total per year (all levels), give out “degrees” backed by no institution other than their own, the graduates will all work for the GN, KRG, and IRC, just totally bleed money, and they’ll call it a great success.
The bit you references about Universities Canada was an error of the feasibility study itself, there was a letter to the editor of Nunatsiaq News on April 20, 2017 titled, “Universities Canada doesn’t do accreditation”, where Philip Landon, Vice President Governance and Programs at Universities Canada reiterated that Universities Canada does not accredit nor require institutes to meet any threshold to reach accreditation, that is sole authority for the territory/provincial government and the respective Indigenous governing bodies (in Nunavut that’s NTI/RIAs).
Accreditation stems from the territorial government, and as well through Indigenous Governing Bodies (which has been expanded under s.35 of the Constitution). Southern Indigenous Governing Bodies have been creating their own accredited post-secondary institutes (which are nationally and internationally accepted under Canadian accreditation) like the Indigenous Institute Consortium.
Thank you Natan for your hard work, as President of ITK you’ve done so much working and meeting with the federal government getting so much money for Inuit Nunangat, infrastructure funding, housing funding, in the hundreds of millions specific for Inuit.
Incredible work that will have a long lasting positive impact for Inuit, it’s too bad some will just talk about the Edmonton Eskimo name which he really didn’t put much time or effort into it. But that’s all some will think about for some odd reason.
Again congratulations Natan and your team.
Nice, helped his Region but not where most Inuit in the other Coast to Coast parts live that he also Represents.
and hopefully we can maximize the options students have after they graduate from high school and are looking to further their education for themselves and ultimately for the benefit of their communities.”
As well as you think this will work out, I have high doubts. Why must this University be different? Why must it be in one of the four regions? This will result in the same situation as we have it right now. If you want to study, you go where a university accepts you.
Do you believe that having a university with an indigenous curriculum, run and for Inuit will succeed? Look at the statistics showing the graduation rates of Nunavut students in the past 5 years. Now, all non-Inuit are deducted from these statistics and post-secondary education. achievements. What do you see?
I truly wish Inuit would participate and graduate from school. Nunavut has a lot to offer, including new businesses, Government/Inuit Org. employment, etc.
JFC – this comment section is already a cynical dumpcano.
Sounds like Nunavut Sivuniksavut on steroids. Only in Inuit Nunangat will you be able to get a degree after taking a course called ” the concept of being a wise person”. Seriously, you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. This place is doomed.
That is your view and opinion which you have the right to express, that is fine but we really don’t need that kind of view in our society up here as it does little and it’s counterproductive.
Feel free also to go back to where it’s perfect for you a place you can be proud of and leave this place for us that feel proud and excited for our future.
So you don’t want push back, or contrarian views to challenge what you already know to be true?
Interestingly, this is the exact opposite of the spirit of inquiry a university should foster.
Lots of assumptions on your part pal. You have no idea who I am and where I come from. Really tired of hearing the uncontextualized “go back from where you came from” its ignorant uniformed and lacks understanding. Try better.
How is concept of being a wise person more unreasonable than western philosophy courses such as the theory of knowledge?
Good question. The only way to know would be to examine the content.
Equally useless
I disagree, philosophy is one of the most useful subjects. It should be required to take at least two philosophy courses in any Art’s or Sciences program.
I’m old, but when I went to U, I took a course called “Intellectual origins of the contemporary West” at Queen’s as a swan course. That course had a huge impact on my personal growth, as we studied a lot of the great thinkers of the West, like Plato, Descartes, Aristotle… depending on the curriculum, this could be a very good course for young people.
What will a graduate from this University be able to do with the Diploma that someone that has not gone to this University can’t do?
By the sounds of it we will not get doctors, engineers, educators.
But we will get Wise people. Maybe you need to graduate from this university to be classified as an Elder.
How will this work? We cant even agree on a language act in Nunavut so does this mean it will be all taught in English? Nice effort Obed but spend that 50M somewhere else maybe towards in establishing a language act first?
Nunavut Arctic College, based in Iqaluit, with satellite campuses in Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlets (and a smaller ‘adult-learning center in each of the other 23 hamlets) has an annual budget of ….. $60 million. Revenues are around $3 million from tuition and related fees; the rest is funded by taxpayers. Well really even the tuition fees are funded by taxpayers, but we’ll leave ghat for now.
The College has three degree-granting programs (Nursing, Education, Social Work and Law), several diploma programs (trades, business, ECE and environment) and quite a few certificate programs (Admin, ABE, GREAT, clothing, nurses’ aid, translation, etc.). Attendance and graduation rates are abysmal.
Recruitment for qualified instructors and support staff is equally desperate, notwithstanding the generous remuneration package. With staff, qualification, attendance and retention is poor.
Additionally, the ‘cream of the artsy crop’ of high school graduates attend Nunavut Sivuniksavut – a two-year sheltered, dogmatic and pampered study-of-studies program in Ottawa. That too is fully subsidized. Once again, attendance and graduation rates are not stellar.
A small group of delusional, self-seeking people want a university – for whom, operated by whom, funded by whom, for whose benefit?
If a true University is built in Inuit Nunangat then it needs to be at a high enough level to have Students from all over Canada Paying to attend. this would help Inuit alot as it would give more people an understanding of our daily lives. as well as possibly some greater understanding of the cultural history.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the poor state of grade school and high school — terrible attendance and graduation rates and dubious standards. Wouldn’t it be better to fix the existing education system and then think of a university?
So why are teachers in Nunavut doing such a horrible job? Teachers with these kinds of failure rates would be tarred and feathered down south.
Judging teacher on the basis of kids results? There is not a lot of teachers who wants to come here and now you want to reduce this number to zero? Then, we can blame judge and policemen for criminality. It take a village to raise a kid, teacher are a part of the equation, not all of it.
We really should start at the grassroots level and fix our crumbling education system first. You need to improve the current system and end social promotion. In Arviat, we have over 40 high school graduates every year but if you actually had assessments done, most of the graduates would be well below grade 10. It’s time that the Department of Education tackle this problem and hire a third party to conduct assessments as this will determine what needs to be fixed. We cannot continue to set up our people to fail by providing a certificate that means nothing. Most graduates will never be able to enroll in any program that needs a solid grade 10 education, university, you definitely need more than grade 10. The last assessment on our education system was conducted about 8 years ago and Nunavut was 40% below the national average. I imagine it has deteriorated since!
You cannot blame the Department of Education for the sub-standards. If you are not in school, you cannot learn. If you sleep in class, you cannot learn. If you don’t do your homework, you don’t learn.
Why not let your frustration out on the parents? Why are you not talking to the families of the graduated students who completed their curriculum and asking what they did differently, or if their child attended school? It’s about discipline (self) to master your school and further education in life. It’s the self-discipline that can make you master working life. As simple as that.
If you let all students who did not have attendance and did not reach the proper academic level graduate into the next grade, you’ll have some crowded classrooms in grades 9 and 10. Not that I’m saying that social promotions are still happening. Children from the south go through the Nunavut school system, graduate, and most take on post-secondary education like college or university. After graduation many stay in Nunavut. There is absolutely no excuse for Inuit students not to reach the same goals
Who instituted social promotion? Certainly not parents or students. Social Promotion gives students and parents no incentive. Whether you show up for 60 days or the entire school year, both will pass and receive the same certificate. This is a problem that the Department of Education has created 20 years ago and it has been the main reason for the absolute destruction of our education system.
Why not educator? Learning advanced Inuktitut and teaching techniques could lead to teaching Inuktitut in Nunavut?
Not everyone is going to be happy. This is a win for Inuit!
ITK. Are you serious right now?
I’d rather students from Nunavut attend an actual accredited university or college gaining skills for employment.
Want to be wise? Stay in school.
Things never stay the same, and often the trick to success is to get something good going at the right time.
Local grade schools were a great idea. Now, local grade schools are seeing shocking levels of non-attendance. It is now more popular to drop out, and wait a decade or two, and then get paid to take upgrading at Nunavut Arctic College. For many Nunavut parents, local grade schools are no longer a great idea.
Local high schools were a great idea. Now, it is statistically likely that a student will not last past Grade 9. Similar to grade schools, high schools are becoming less popular in Nunavut. The latest nd growing craze is for well heeled parents, often in the civil service, to snub the locally available secondary education to send their children south to private school. Again, local high schools is an idea that may be past its prime.
Arctic College was a great idea. Unfortunately, the idea went sideways as so much of what NAC now does is to make up for the unpopularity of local grade and high schools.
The idea of an Inuit University is a great idea. However, it assumes several things. It assumes young Inuit want to stay in our lands to live, work and learn. It also assumes young Inuit would prefer to study in an Inuit University instead of southern institution.
Given how many young Inuit are choosing to live and work in the south, and how many parents are spending their own money to send their kids to school in the south, I am not sure these assumptions remain true.
The Inuit University may be a case of a great idea that is already past its best before date.
To teach at a university in Canada, you typically need a doctoral degree (PhD) and experience in your field. You may also need licensure or professional certification for teaching in regulated fields like medicine, engineering, architecture, or law.
If this truly is a post-secondary option for Inuit, by Inuit, then maybe be better focus on the foundations of education systems that are already in place.
To me it is like they are trying to build pyramids upside down.
This sounds very much like Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS).
There are waaay better places to work other than Nunavut. 🥱Or…are your “options” that limited? 🤣🤣🥱
Another cash grab. Oh well get your money while you can.
I sometimes wonder what Obed’s and IT’S true motives are.
The appearance does not seem to be productive to the real needs of our children.
Perhaps a political future with the Liberals and their NDP bedmates??
It would be great if this university can partner with other Arctic small universities like the one in Nuuk, Akureyri other places like that.
Exciting stuff, great to have truly northern university, everything in Canada is so geared towards everything close to the US boarder and that should not be the only option.
I find it interesting to read all the comments and wonder where most of the commentators come from, so many ill informed and narrow minded comments, I think most of us can see where these comments come from and it’s disappointing but not surprising, disappointing as a lot of these people live up here and work in our governments.
It’s no wonder why our governments in Nunavut are the way they are.
Let the misappropriation with consultant firms begin. This will be a complete boondoggle
By the tume its almost figured out they willhave run out if money.