Inuit Nunangat University closer to realization with $50M from Mastercard Foundation

OTTAWA — The dream to open an Inuit-led university is one step closer to realization, the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami said, after a $50 million investment from the Mastercard Foundation.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, or ITK, serves as the national representative organization for Inuit in Canada. In a statement the organization said the funding will allow it to build key capacities and advance academic plans and course development for the university.

The university would be the first of its kind and would be embedded in Inuit cultures, with an aim of promoting language retention and revitalization and supporting economic and cultural opportunities.

ITK said it needs $160 million from the public and private sectors to open a main campus and develop initial degree programs. It aims to open the doors to students in 2030.

ITK President Natan Obed said the organization will be asking the federal government to commit $50 million in its next budget to help achieve that goal.

He said Inuit Nunangat University will remove barriers that prevent many Inuit from accessing post-secondary education and equip them with degrees to support the needs of their communities.

“We’re the only developed country that has not had a university in the Arctic for some time, and that’s of huge significance to us from a sovereignty perspective but also from an equity perspective,” he said in an interview.

“This is going to be a university where people who want to go to university in Inuit Nunangat will be grounded in Inuit society and also have a full spectrum of educational opportunities that include learning more about our society and our practices.”

The organization envisions building a main campus that will serve as the central education hub for students across Inuit Nunangat, along with knowledge centres placed throughout its four regions that will offer courses that respect each community’s cultural context.

Six faculties are imagined that represent Inuit values and cultures. The faculty of resourcefulness and sustainability includes major and minor degree programs in economics, hunting and engineering, and the faculty of sovereignty includes major and minor programs in governance, leadership, land claims and Inuit self-determination.

“We’ve tried to give faculty names of the outcomes that we want to see in our society,” Obed said. “It’s a very different conceptualization on what is important.”

ITK previously wanted the university to open in 2023, but challenges along the way prevented that “ambitious” start date from being realized, Obed said. He called the process “incredibly complex.”

Obed cited challenges in securing funding, consultations around course offerings and locations and a request to the federal government to develop legislation that allows the university to operate across provincial and territorial jurisdictions.

“That’s still to come,” he said. “The first step we need is the federal government announcing in its next budget a significant contribution to the creation of this university.”

Jennifer Brennan, the senior director of Canada programs at the Mastercard Foundation, said in a statement the university “holds the promise to fundamentally transform the education system guided by the vision and values of Inuit.”

“Inuit Nunangat University will deliver exceptional learning in the Inuit homeland creating new pathways to meaningful livelihoods for Inuit youth in support of healthy and vibrant Inuit communities,” she said.

Obed said part of the reason the university is important is to ensure Inuit don’t need to travel to the south for post-secondary education. He said the students often encounter vast cultural differences, a lack of support systems and sometimes violent encounters with non-Inuit.

In 2022, for example, Savanna Pikuyak moved to Ottawa from Nunavut to attend Algonquin College. She was found dead less than a week later, and her former housemate is now on trial for first-degree murder.

“We know that there are challenges that Inuit students face that are particular to our society, but it shouldn’t be that we have to create an institution because our Inuit students, when they pursue post-secondary success, are at a greater risk of physical harm when they go to the south,” he said.

“But that really is the case, and the numbers bear it out.”

While ITK looks toward 2030, Obed hopes to gain acceptance from existing university communities for what he described as a new academic institution that breaks through the status quo.

He said there will be decisions and conversations academic institutions will have to reckon with, including around the nature of Indigenous education, pedagogy and philosophy, and how willing those institutions will be to accept a new model for post-secondary education.

“We’re hopeful we can navigate all of that without having to compromise on our particular vision,” he said.

The university was first envisioned in 2011 in part by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, when she served as president of ITK.

Obed said he’s given Simon regular updates over the years, and that he’s been fortunate to build on her successes for one of the biggest undertakings ITK has been part of.

“(Simon) was a force to be reckoned with when she was ITK president and this is, in her words, one of her greatest achievements.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2024.

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press