Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 10/98) - If all goes well by next year, the North will have its first established university.

It will not be like any other school. In fact it will only exist in the virtual world.

"We are not thinking of bricks and mortar. We don't want Yukon College fighting with Nunavut Arctic College over a building. The idea is that it would be dispersed throughout the circumpolar world, programs being given from different centres," said Peter Johnson, president of the Association of Universities for Northern Studies.

Johnson, who is one of two Canadians on a working group looking into the feasibility of the university proposal, gave a presentation on the progress toward creation of a circumpolar university at the Northern Colleges Conference on Monday and Tuesday in Yellowknife.

The fundamental idea behind the university, he said, is that should be able to deliver education to people in the communities, using the latest telecommunications technologies, including the Internet and videoconferenceing.

Face-to-face circumpolar contact is also essential to allow students to share their experiences and their traditional knowledge with others.

"The overall concept is based on the fact that, from talking to people in the circumpolar North, there is a need for a university which is delivered in the North, for the North, by Northerners," said Johnson.

Funding for the college will come from partnerships with industry and other stakeholders, including environmental groups, commerce and indigenous people. Government will not be the main funding body.

"What the North is going to get from this is an expansion of the available opportunities for people to gain an education in the development of our North," said Sally Ross, president of Yukon College, who is also the second member of the feasibility working group.

"We don't presently have a university north of 60 in Canada. This is an option that brings into perspective a whole global opportunity. In addition to being Northern-relevant, it will reflect international knowledge and wisdom."

Ross said it not going to be just an electronic institution -- it's also about relationship building and connection-building among all parties involved.

The university will build on existing international linkages to deliver university-level educational opportunities.

Ross expects to see large numbers of students enrol when the idea gets up and running.

"I do know there's a tremendous appetite for specialized study in the areas of implementation of self governments among First Nations and aboriginal peoples. There's a tremendous interest in what's happening in various engineering technologies in various parts of the world," she said.

Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, U.S., Canada and a number of non-circumpolar countries are interested in the University of the Arctic.

The concept of a feasibility study will be forwarded by the working group to the Arctic Council, made up of members of all circumpolar nations, early this fall, when they have a chance to review and give their approval.

"There's a great deal of work, should they give us their blessing, that needs to be done to bring this into reality. In hazarding a guess, I would suggest that within a year there should be some concrete product," said Ross.