Indigenous institutes will be able to grant degrees

Ontario is moving toward allowing Indigenous postsecondary institutes to independently grant students degrees and diplomas.

The province’s nine Indigenous governed and operated post-secondary institutions currently offer programs in partnership with colleges and universities, but legislation would allow for the creation of an Indigenous council, which would approve Indigenous institutes to award degrees, certificates and diplomas.

Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day did half of his post-secondary education at a mainstream school and the other half with the First Nations Technical Institute. He said he would not have become chief if not for his education at the Indigenous institute. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this legislation will serve as a springboard for our already successful First Nation post-secondary institutions to flourish and grow and continue to design and provide programs and services that reflect First Nations’ ways of knowing and ways of being,” he said Thursday.

A legislative change that would allow for the first step in that process was contained in the Liberal government’s fall economic update bill, but the advanced education and Indigenous relations ministers highlighted it in an announcement Thursday.

The government is putting $56 million over three years toward expanding the capacity of Indigenous institutes.