UNBC announces free tuition for Lheidli T'enneh students
Lheidli T'enneh Nation will help cover student needs such as housing, food and transit
The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) and the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation hope a new partnership will help break down barriers for Lheidli T'enneh students.
The partnership, announced Wednesday, will offer two streams.
One stream is for Lheidli T'enneh students who meet UNBC admissions requirements. Those students will receive full tuition for their undergraduate degree.
The other is a transition program available for Lheidli T'enneh students who do not meet the admissions requirements but show strong academic promise. They will also receive tuition support.
The Lheidli T'enneh First Nation will help cover students' living expenses, including housing, food, transit, and textbooks.
UNBC's largest campus is in Prince George, which is Lheidli T'enneh territory.
Important support for students
Chief Clay Pountney with the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation says the goal is to allow students to focus solely on their studies.
"It gives them more of an incentive to actually do that [get a post-secondary education], knowing that hopefully they can pursue whatever they would like to," Pountney said.
Beverly Best, manager of aboriginal student engagement at UNBC's First Nations Centre, says existing bursaries and scholarships haven't gone far enough.
Best, who is from the Stellat'en First Nation, says while there is some funding available from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, it's a common misconception that all Indigenous students in Canada get free tuition.
"I hold student loan debt just like many students across Canada," she said. "I think that's a myth that Canadians need to educate themselves — that it is just not true."
Reconciliation in action
She says this partnership is a step toward addressing some of the 94 calls to action put out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015.
The commission looked at the legacy of Canada's historic residential school system. Government officials forcibly separated about 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Métis children from their communities and forced them to attend the schools.
One of the commission's specific calls to action was to provide adequate funding for First Nations students seeking post-secondary education.
"We're not there yet," Best said.
"It's not going to happen overnight, but if we continue on paths like this, especially with partnerships like this ... I think that's the way of the future."
With files from Daybreak North