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Aboriginal Institutes’ Consortium

The Aboriginal Institutes’ Consortium, Ontario was established in 1994 to address the collective interests of its member Aboriginal owned and controlled post-secondary education and training institutions. There are currently eight member institutions (2007). The vision of the Consortium is to “advance the development and operation of autonomous Indigenous-controlled learning institutions thereby providing a foundation for the balanced physical, mental, emotional and spiritual development of our people and the social, political, economic and cultural revitalization of our Nations.” [www.aboriginalinstitute.com]   Key issues that continue to be of the utmost relevance to the growth and development of the institutes are:  recognition and resources.

Aboriginal institutions were created as an exercise of the inherent right to design, deliver and control education programs developed for Aboriginal people. Aboriginal institutions were not only created to address the lack of culturally relevant curriculum in post-secondary but also to address the needs of mature students, students who would not necessarily compete for space in mainstream post-secondary institutions.

Aboriginal owned and controlled education institutions achieve great success in providing access to education and training programs for 4,000 Aboriginal learners (Annual Report 2005) annually through culturally enriched and community-based program delivery by Aboriginal faculty thereby addressing Aboriginal learning styles. Aboriginal institutions achieve high rates of student retention and success through the provision of student support systems that often utilize community networks. The lack of formal government recognition requires Aboriginal institutions to partner with mainstream colleges and universities to ensure currency of student credentials and to access annual grant funding made available from the province of Ontario and the government of Canada. Ontario makes available $1.8 million in grant funding while the government of Canada provides just over $3.5 million to Aboriginal institutions (Annual Report 2005).

The goal the Consortium is to attain formal recognition to enable Aboriginal institutions the recognized authority to grant their own certificates, diplomas and degrees, in addition, to attain secure and adequate funding to support the capacity development of Aboriginal owned and controlled education and training institutions.

Website: www.aboriginalinstitute.com