Indigenous Access to Post-Secondary Education:How Federal Policy Can Help Close the Gap

Abstract

This paper will explore the PSE access gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. It will review the size of the gap and some of the barriers that Indigenous people face to access PSE by drawing on previous studies. It will then discuss the existing federal programs at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada that work to address this gap and will identify some of the key shortcoming of the federal response to the Indigenous PSE access gap. It will finish by providing suggestions for improvements to the existing programs and ideas for potential new policies that could be implemented.