A new partnership between the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies and the University of Saskatchewan will make it is easier for SIIT business grads to obtain a bachelor of commerce degree.
Starting this fall, the U of S will recognize an SIIT business diploma as two-years towards a four-year bachelor of commerce degree.
Edwards School of Business Dean Daphne Taras says prior to the partnership, SIIT business grads were forced to pursue a commerce degree at the University of Lethbridge if they wanted to have their prior courses credited.
“They have children, they have families here and it’s a tremendous hardship just to go to school for many, many students,” she says. “But then to have to be uprooted and go to Lethbridge to finish a degree, in order to have a really distinguished career, was really problematic to me.”
She adds the university wants to eliminate as many barriers as possible for Aboriginal students to obtain a business degree.
“We really want to make sure – I have a personal conviction and so does my faculty – that we want to prevent glass ceilings from Aboriginal graduates, Aboriginal students, in the next 15 years.”
Taras says SIIT graduated about 139 students from its business program last year.
This is a first time partnership between the Edwards School of Business and SIIT.