We are lucky to live in the southern portion of Canada, as we have relatively decent weather, closely spaced communities, and easy access to postsecondary education. However, this is not the case for the majority of Canadians living in the North. While there isn’t a lot that can be done about the weather or community-spacing, to establish an accredited research university is a very achievable task.
For years the only option open for any Northerner wishing to complete a bachelor’s degree has been to travel south for this type of schooling. Communities in the North are small and isolated; their strength and survival comes from the bonds forged by having a close-knit community. And while there is impacted stress on many of the students who relocate to one of the provinces for school, there is also added stress placed on the communities that they came from.
The need to maintain a strong community to be able to survive the harsh winters could be one of the major issues surrounding the poor graduation rates of those from the North. This is one of the major concerns that any northern Canadian university would have to deal with — how should a school be structured to not only meet educational goals, but the goals of communities that these students come from?
Satellite campuses could house small libraries, community centres, health centres, and other services lacking within a community.
I feel the most feasible option would be one that combines traditional learning models that any student from the south would recognize, with satellite campuses and distance learning methods supplementing the traditional university structure. The satellite campuses could also serve multiple purposes in the communities in which they are located. They could house small libraries, community centres, health centres, or any other services that might be lacking within a particular community. The goal would not be seen as a service catering to only the student population, but to the community as a whole.
Moreover, given that the Arctic has a very small population, it would not make sense for the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut to all have their own individual institutions, but one that is centrally located — probably in Yellowknife, as it’s the largest city among the territories. While the centrality of the university could pose some relocation problems for students, the key to retention would not be in the location but in the local knowledge and community collaboration used to structure the yearly school calendar.
Local knowledge could be preserved and utilized as a resource for gaining a deeper understanding of the ecological and geographical concerns in the region. Community collaboration would mean the students would not have to make a choice between school and the survival of their communities and families. The university could count community learning as an elective and grant credits based on that, or structure the year so that breaks coincide with peak hunting and fishing seasons.
A university in the Canadian Arctic would be unfeasible using the structure that higher education takes in the Canadian provinces. To establish a model that takes into account the needs of communities could rectify the problem of poor post-secondary education in the North, along with recognition that the university system is just as unique as the area in which it is located.
