Nunavut town excited for first Arctic university, opening in 2030

Canada’s first Inuit university is one step closer to opening its doors. Arviat Mayor Joe Savikataaq on the progress being made and what students can expect.

The first university in Canada’s Arctic will be built in Arviat, Nunavut, and is expected to open in 2030.

Arviat Mayor Joe Savikataaq Jr. spoke to CTV Your Morning on Friday to explain how the town of 3,000 people will support both the university and knowledge centres across northern Canada.

“There was a lot of requirements to be considered, to make sure the university will be in the proper place,” Savikataaq Jr. said.

The university’s board of directors unanimously decided on Arviat, and Savikataaq Jr. said it was both the location and potential for infrastructure development that gave his town the winning bid.

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Inuit Nunangat University (INU), will serve 100 students when it opens. The charter declares that it will be “guided by Inuit (laws and traditions)” and prioritize the “empowerment, safety, physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing of students.”

They promise to “provide unique learning environments, rigorous education programs, and an institutional culture that are grounded in reflects, supports, and promotes our Inuit way of life.”

Savikataaq Jr. said it was a “historic moment” opening the Inuit-centred university in Canada. Previously, students from Canada’s north either went south or abroad to study.

“Inuit are a close-knit community of people,” Savikataaq Jr. said, “this will be very good for the Inuit people and others in Canada that want to study in their homeland, in the Arctic and not have to travel abroad and far away from home to pursue and get a better education.”

“This will be a game changer for the Inuit and people of Canada,” he added.

“It’ll be quite the unique experience,” Savikataaq Jr. said, adding that the Inuit language, is “still the street language, it’s the home language.”

He added that incoming students will be able to experience Inuit culture first hand.

“It’ll be a one-of-a-kind experience for people coming to our community,” he said, adding that his people “are very humbled to be the home for the university.”

He said that Arviat has factored in waste management, water, power, fuel, and other infrastructure demands. Many communities in Nunavut and northern Canada rely on air shipments for supplies, meaning that hosting an institution like a university is more challenging than it would be in southern Canada.

Savikataaq Jr. said that Arviat has met all the requirements to host the school. He said his community “overwhelmingly supported” hosting the school, and that they are “eager to showcase what we can offer to the rest of the country, and possibly even the rest of the world, looking forward to that.”

INU will host knowledge centres in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and northern Quebec.