President of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Natan Obed, speaks to reporters after a meeting of Canada's premiers and Indigenous leaders at the Council of the Federation, in Halifax, Monday, July 15, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

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.

The organization, which serves as the national representative organization for Inuit in Canada, said the funding will allow it to build key capacities and advance academic plans and course development.

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.

A costing assessment from ITK says 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.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami 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."

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

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024