The University of Saskatchewan is partnering with the Arctic University of Norway to launch a northern governance and development master’s degree program.
The announcement was made on Wednesday at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
U of S professor Ken Coates said the program matches up students from both universities to work on projects together.
Coates said 14 students from each school will collaborate with communities to help address northern issues.
“They then will produce a major paper: the major paper will be on northern development, governance or economic development and many of these will be comparative,” said Coates. “So every year we will have 28 research papers on aspects of northern life, written by northerners, written for northerners under the supervision of northerners.”
Former FSIN Vice Chief Simon Bird is one of the students working towards his Master’s degree.
He says he’s excited to learn how the Indigenous people of Norway retain their language.
“What I have learned so far is we have so many similar issues, problems, solutions in what we call the circumpolar north and that’s what we’re here to study,” said Bird. “We’re here to learn with and along with the Norway, especially the Indigenous people, the Sami.”
Students from Norway will spend the next 10 days in northern Saskatchewan with students from the U of S visiting Norway next February.