A delegation of education officials continues a tour of the province’s north today with stops in Fond du Lac, Uranium City and Stony Rapids.
The group includes University of Regina President Vianne Timmons and the university’s deans of nursing, education and social work.
The northern visit started yesterday in La Ronge, and Timmons says discussions included topics specifically for La Ronge and area:
“In particular, the La Ronge community has asked us to look at community-based programming and that’s why the president of the First Nations University is here to look at that. We also have a Master’s program that we’re running in the community, and so we met with some people who are taking that to see how that’s going — and that’s going very, very well almost halfway through.”
Timmons says one reason for the northern visit is to ensure students leaving for the south have proper support:
“Not only are they leaving their communities, but often their support networks, their extended family. Many of our students were above the national average of students who have children. And so, to leave the north and take your children with you, it’s very challenging to come down to a city and try and find accommodations.”
Timmons says efforts to increase the number of Aboriginal students at the U of R continue, noting enrollment is up again this year.