The province is committing another five years of funding for two programs that have allowed northern students to earn university degrees close to home.

NORTEP provides aboriginal-specific teacher education degree programs with northern and Indigenous content.

NORPAC allows northern students to take three years of arts and sciences courses in the province’s north.

Both programs are offered in partnership with the University of Saskatchewan and University of Regina.

The government says the most substantial change in the latest agreement is that a more formal reporting process has been established. The province says this will allow for enhanced accountability and ensure ongoing and regular communications between NORTEP/NORPAC and the Ministry of Advanced Education.

Since 1976, NORTEP and NORPEC have granted over 600 degrees to mostly northern Aboriginal students.