THUNDER BAY -- A conference is being held in Thunder Bay this week to examine the nature of self-identification among Indigenous students at colleges and universities. The two-day conference is being hosted by Confederation College's centre for policy in Aboriginal Learning.
Right now colleges and universities in the province are encouraging Indigenous learners to self-identify. This is to find out how many Indigenous students are in the system.
At Confederation College about 25 per cent of the student population identify as Indigenous decent, although estimates are higher at around 40 percent because some people don't want to self-identify.
The conference hopes to try and reverse that fear. Students and communities are encouraged to become part of the process so they can own the data and share it with post-secondary institutions.
Students are able to self-identify through the campaign "We are Here".
