6. Identification and Enrolment of Aboriginal Students

At mainstream institutions, the identification of Aboriginal learners can be challenging because institutions must rely on students self-identifying themselves. In order to get a sense of the number of Aboriginal learners, colleges and institutes reach in a given year, mainstream and Aboriginal institutions were asked to provide estimates on the number of individual Aboriginal learners in programs for the 2004/2005 academic year. Mainstream institutions were also asked to describe the challenges they face with identifying Aboriginal students.

6.1 Aboriginal Students at Mainstream Colleges and Institutes

Mainstream colleges and institutes were asked to provide estimates of the number of self- identified Aboriginal students in education and training programs during the 2004-2005 academic year. The colleges in the three territories and the University College of the North in northern Manitoba are included as mainstream institutions because even though very significant percentages of their student population are Aboriginal, they are also serving non-Aboriginal people within their territories and region. To date 46 participating colleges and institutes have provided estimates on the number of self-identified Aboriginal students by program type. These estimates are not for full-time equivalent students but rather for the number of individual Aboriginal learners attending institutions.