U of S aboriginal enrolment breaks record
SASKATOON — When first-year University of Saskatchewan student Laryssa Sutherland finishes a long day of pre-nursing studies, she heads to daycare to pick up her daughter and begins her evening single parenting.
Having a baby soon after high school delayed Sutherland’s longtime plan to pursue higher education and has added to the effort of being a student, but she considers herself lucky to have funding from One Arrow First Nation and the moral support of a sister and cousin who are also students at the university.
“This is pretty new. My mom’s pretty proud of my sister and I,” she said.
The women are among the 2,236 students at the U of S this year — 10.6 per cent of the student population — who self-declare as aboriginal. It’s the largest indigenous presence in the university’s history.
The high numbers are the result of a growing young aboriginal population and the university’s decades of effort to attract and retain them, said Graeme Joseph, the university’s team leader of First Nations, Métis and Inuit student success.
Indigenous students can be found in graduate, non-degree, postgraduate clinical and undergraduate programs. Joseph said he expects even greater aboriginal enrolment in years to come.
The three colleges with the largest aboriginal student numbers are Arts and Science (953), Education (614) and Nursing (175), while 206 indigenous students are enrolled in graduate programs, an increase of 6.2 per cent over last year.
Despite their burgeoning presence, aboriginal students still face many barriers to getting their degrees, Joseph said.
Contrary to a common myth, they don’t all receive blank government cheques to pursue their educations. First Nations receive government transfers for some of their members to pursue post secondary schooling, but the funds haven’t kept pace with growing populations and rising education costs, Joseph said.
Provincial and federal funding programs are available for non-treaty indigenous people, as are scholarships that all aboriginal students can apply for, but there’s no guarantee of a free ride.
From a cultural standpoint, many aboriginal students come from families and communities with few graduates, and some face a dauntingly foreign environment on campus.