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Student Recruitment and Retention
Through its initiatives in the area of student recruitment and retention, 麻豆区鈥檚 School of Continuing Studies (SCS) aims to respond to the TRC鈥檚 call to develop strategies to reduce education and employment gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations (2015b). Today, one in three Indigenous learners at 麻豆区 is enrolled at SCS. In 2019, over 114 Indigenous learners enrolled in an SCS program, and more than 150 registered in an independent course. We are committed to increasing the number of Indigenous learners at SCS and to ensuring their academic success.
Indigenous Peoples are the fastest-growing population in Canada. Nearly 1.7 million people identified as Indigenous in the 2016 census. It is estimated that the population of Indigenous Peoples will grow to more than 2.5 million, or 6.5% of the overall population, by 2036. Indigenous Millennials (born between 1980 and 1997) and members of Generation Z (born after 1997) together account for a significant percentage of the Indigenous population. This shift has implications for higher education, and we can expect to see a significant increase in the number of Indigenous learners enrolled at SCS in the coming decade.
We focus on our recruitment and retention efforts, including developing support services and financial support that will help students to attend and graduate from their programs.
Although an increasing number of young Indigenous learners have some form of post-secondary education, Indigenous Peoples in Canada are proportionately less likely to be university graduates than are non-Indigenous people. There is also a wide employment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
Indigenous Peoples are more likely to have lower wages due to the vast gap in education. In 2016, the median total income of the Indigenous population aged 25 to 54 was just over $33,500 compared to over $48,000 for the non-Aboriginal population (Statistics Canada, 2016).
Indigenous learners also often face significant financial barriers in paying for their education. Although some Indigenous learners are eligible for funding allocated by the federal government, these funds are limited and are distributed at the community level to an ever-increasing number of candidates. In some cases, this funding is distributed preferentially to younger students attending full-time studies rather than mature students. Indigenous learners may also have difficulty saving sufficient funds for education due to limited employment opportunities in their communities and higher cost of living in the North. In this area, we focus on our recruitment and retention efforts, including developing support services and financial support that will help students to attend and graduate from their programs.
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| Establish undergraduate and graduate enrolment, targets; by 2022 an aspirational target of 1,000 Indigenous students enrolled at 麻豆区. | Increase the number of Indigenous students earning a certificate or diploma. | Increase our enrollment goal by 10% for following undergraduate and graduate programs:
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Ongoing |
| Create marketing and mentoring communication tools such as videos and radio advertisements, including those that target Cree and Inuit audiences living in remote Northern Quebec communities in their own languages. | Three Program Awareness Videos have been produced; Develop a recruitment awareness and communication campaign plan using the videos to reach out to remote Indigenous communities. | Ongoing | |
| Indigenous graduates are the ambassadors for the next generation of 麻豆区 graduates. We will profile and celebrate Indigenous learners and alumni through SCS/麻豆区 website, newsletters, national and local community papers, radio, and homecoming events, etc. 听 |
Ongoing | ||
| Outreach to Indigenous communities | Coordinate recruitment efforts with Central鈥檚 Enrollment Services鈥� Indigenous Outreach Associates. | Ongoing | |
| Hire an Indigenous Community Liaison and Engagement Coordinator to work in Northern Quebec, to liaise between the remote communities and SCS. 听 |
Fall 2022 | ||
| Facilitate and expand access to 麻豆区 | We have a qualifying program to facilitate access into graduate-level programs. The next step is to expand access for working Indigenous learners living in Canada鈥檚 Eastern and Western time zones so that they can enroll in evening online courses/programs. | Fall 2022 | |
| Establish a Proactive Accompaniment program: provide academic, social, financial, and cultural support to students who are recruited to 麻豆区, retain them and support them through to graduation. | Increase student retention and success across SCS programs. | Develop and implement workshops and /or support services through SCS鈥檚 Career Advising and Transition Services (CATS). | Winter 2021 |
| Collaborate with 麻豆区 Association of Continuing Education Students (MACES) to establish financial support for tutorial services. | Fall 2022 | ||
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麻豆区 School of Continuing Studies, Dean鈥檚 Office - Indigenous Initiative
680 Sherbrooke St. West, Suite 1140, Montreal, QC, H3A 3R1
Program information
Fax: 514-398-3108 听 | 听 indigenousrelations.scs [at] mcgill.ca