Graduate and undergraduate application fees for self-declared Canadian Indigenous students are now waived, the University of Lethbridge announced Tuesday. Undergraduate students pay $140 to apply, and graduate students $125.
As well, self-identified members of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, the Aamskapi Pikuni, will pay domestic tuition rates instead of international tuition fee rates, to study at the university — a savings of thousands of dollars per semester. A Canadian undergraduate student taking five courses this fall at the university’s main campus pays about $4,300 while an international undergrad taking five courses pays roughly $7,900 more.
The moves remove financial barriers for Indigenous students wanting to pursue a university education, said the university in a Tuesday news release.
“Too often we hear of potential students who are wanting to apply but must decide whether they take that chance and spend the money not knowing they will qualify or use that money for necessities in their life,” said Dr. Leroy Little Bear, the University of Lethbridge’s vice-provost of Iniskim Indigenous Relations.
“We cannot let that be a barrier for what could be a life-changing opportunity.”
The international tuition fees have meant few Blackfeet Nation members have attended the University of Lethbridge, it acknowledged.
“There is no contrived international U.S.-Canada border on the ancestral lands of the Siksikaitsitapi, we are all part of the Blackfoot Confederacy and now our university recognizes this through this change that opens the door to Blackfeet students who may live in Montana,” said Little Bear.
Indigenous students currently represent six per cent of total student enrolment at the university, and a plan calls for that enrolment to increase by four per cent, to 10 per cent, by 2026.
“It is an aspirational goal, and we believe it is also a very achievable goal,” said Shanda Webber, director of Iniskim Indigenous Relations.