Vancouver Island University has announced it will be offering domestic student tuition to Indigenous students who have ancestral territory in Canada.
Under this new tuition approach, Indigenous students whose ancestral lands are within Canada will no longer be subject to an 'international' tuition classification, but will be granted recognition as members of Indigenous nations and be eligible for the lower domestic tuition rate.
Dr. Ralph Nilson, President and Vice-Chancellor of VIU says the move by the university was a progression of conversations and recognition.
"An importance of us welcoming people whose Nation is here, whose Nation's land we're on--why would we recognize them as foreign? Why don't we recognize them as form their Nation, which is the land that we're on? So, we're recognizing them for domestic tuition."
Nilson says the Board's decision demonstrates VIU's continuing commitment to fulfill the recommendations of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission