Yukon University charts new path for post-secondary education in the North

In May 2020, as the spring wildflowers bloom and migrating birds return to the Arctic, Canada’s first university north of the 60^th parallel will officially launch and graduate its first class of students.

The graduates, who can opt to wear the cap and gown or traditional First Nations regalia, will receive a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Governance—wrapping up a degree they began in the fall of 2018 when Yukon College began its transition to “YukonU”—a university "in the North, for the North, by the North."

[rs_related_article slug="universite-laval-wins-funding-to-build-new-northern-research-centre"]As the mantra suggests, Yukon University is pioneering a northern model of education and research, designed to reflect and meet the needs of northerners and their communities. Top among those needs are a diverse economy, sustainable natural resource development, strategies to cope with the effects of climate change and capacity in indigenous governance.

“Why should somebody in Cambridge Bay, [Nunavut], have to travel 5,000 miles to go to a university?” said Karen Barnes, President and Vice-Chancellor of Yukon College in an interview with RE$EARCH MONEY.  “We're building this institution for northern kids that can't go or would rather not go outside the North [for a university education]—and so often don't go.” 

A hybrid university

Ayamdigut, Yukon College’s main campus, sits on a bluff overlooking the Yukon River to the north of downtown Whitehorse. A dozen other campuses are spread throughout the Yukon, from Teslin in the south to Old Crow in the north, serving a student population of more than 5,000, of which about 30 percent identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuit.

At first glance, Yukon University will not look much different from Yukon College. The College already has the authority to grant degrees, though the current slate of undergraduate and graduate degree programs are offered in conjunction with partner universities to the south. The university designation will change that, creating a hybrid post-secondary institution that can administer made-in-Yukon degrees, in addition to the certificate, diploma and adult learning opportunities that have been offered for decades.

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The new university intends to focus on three core areas of education and research: Indigenous self-determination and governance; climate change - society and environment; and, resource development, technology and innovation. In addition to the Indigenous Governance degree, which welcomed its inaugural class of students last fall, Yukon University intends to launch a Bachelor of Business Administration in 2019 and a Bachelor of Arts in Northern Studies in 2021.

In preparation for the official launch, policymakers are finalizing the Yukon University Act and the university governance structure in consultation with the territory’s 14 First Nations, 11 of which are self-governing.

“The reality is, we need our First Nations citizens to be educated in order to run our governments and to be able to bring back that self-determination that we've lost. That means bringing the education to them in their small communities,” said Tosh Southwick, Associate Vice-President Indigenous Engagement and Reconciliation, in an interview with RE$EARCH MONEY. “Our 14 First Nations have a different context up here than they do in other parts of Canada. We can’t necessarily find programs built for that context down south. But Yukon University can build them in partnership with First Nations to make sure they’re relevant and accessible.”

Path to reconciliation

Barnes and Southwick underscored the transformational power of education in the north and the role that Yukon University can play in indigenous reconciliation. 

[rs_quote credit="Tosh Southwick" source="Associate Vice-President Indigenous Engagement and Reconciliation"]When we're talking about reconciliation, we're talking about addressing systemic power imbalances, we're talking about resetting relationships, and university governance is a piece of that.[/rs_quote] “Our elders have really embraced the idea of a university being crucial to that pathway for reconciliation and self-determination, even though four generations of Yukoners have gone through residential schools,” said Southwick. She pointed to a program at Yukon College that brings elders to campus, in an effort to integrate indigenous culture into student life and traditional knowledge into classrooms.

The College is approaching reconciliation in other ways that will carry through to the university. For example, staff, faculty and students must complete a Yukon First Nation core competency requirement. The administration is also developing Yukon University's governance structure and working through how to indigenize the bicameral governance model that is typical of a university. 

“When we're talking about reconciliation, we're talking about addressing systemic power imbalances, we're talking about resetting relationships, and university governance is a piece of that,” said Southwick, who helped lead the conversation about governance. “This is really an example of Yukon University breaking trail because we haven't been able to follow anybody else on this path. It's not going to be perfect, but it's leaving a legacy for others to rise and move that bar forward.”

A developing focus on research

“We have an opportunity with Yukon University to say that First Nation ways of knowing and being and doing are just as legitimate as Western ways. Research is one of the main tools that we do that with,” said Southwick.

While Barnes acknowledged that research wasn’t a driving force behind the development of Yukon University, she said it is an increasingly important focus of the institution, as southern policymakers begin to look northward for expertise that can inform policy solutions.

In fact, the College has emerged as a global leader in research on Indigenous self-determination and has developed several other research strengths, such as the impact of climate change, that Yukon University can build on. As faculty, staff and students become more involved in research, they are changing the dynamic around research in the North, helping to ensure that it reflects the needs of local citizens and communities—and, ultimately, benefits the North.

"We've had to really attract, and we do attract, a very unique breed of researchers and educators who are very interested in cooperative research programs," said Barnes.

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