Indigenous Graduate Students
The university respects the diversity of our learners, their communities, aspirations, cultures and traditions.
The University of Calgary, located in the heart of Southern Alberta, both acknowledges and pays tribute to the traditional territories of the peoples of Treaty 7, which include the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations). The city of Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation within Alberta (including Nose Hill Métis District 5 and Elbow Métis District 6).
ii’taa’poh’to’p, the University of Calgary’s Indigenous Strategy, provides guidance on our path to reconciliation. The Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Calgary recognizes that there are various ways that Indigenous graduate students engage with Indigenous knowledge and traditions. We support Indigenous graduate students who wish to incorporate their traditional ways of knowing, teaching, learning and research. Some of the ways we do this include:
- broadening procedures to better incorporate Indigenous languages, oral traditions, pedagogies and research methodologies and methods;
- expanding opportunities for Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers to contribute to graduate student research and teaching in meaningful ways; and
- providing support for Indigenous graduate students who wish to incorporate their traditions.
Supporting Documents
Indigenous citizenship and/or Membership Supporting Documents
If you’d like to be considered for funding specific to Indigenous students, you must self-identify as Indigenous on your scholarship application and provide documentation to verify your Indigenous citizenship and/or membership.
Submitted documentation must be current, valid or both to be considered. We encourage you to submit early to ensure that the process is not delayed.
You only need to provide one of the documentation types set out in our published guidelines.
If your documentation is not specified in the list to the right, it will be forwarded for review by the University of Calgary Committee on Indigenous Citizenship and Membership. Contact the Graduate Award Office for support and advice regarding documentation.
- Certificate of Indian Status (Status Card) issued by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). Older Certificates of Indian Status (Status Cards) may still be used, but if Renew Before date has passed, individuals are encouraged to order a new card.
- Letter from a government-registered First Nations community verifying the applicant is a member of that First Nation.
- A letter from Indigenous Services Canada indicating the applicant is not entitled to registration under the Indian Act due to the limits imposed by section 6.2 of that Act (the “second generation cut off”)
- Documentation (including long form birth certificates) that reflect a connection to an ancestor (parent, grandparent, or great grandparent)
- with a Certificate of Indian Status (Status Card); or
- whose name appears in the Indian Register according to the Indian Act; or
- named in a letter from a government-registered First Nation confirming the ancestor’s name is on a First Nation band membership list.
- Letter from a government-registered First Nation community verifying the applicant is a member of that First Nation.
Documentation will be reviewed by the University of Calgary Committee on Indigenous Citizenship and Membership
- A Métis card issued by one of the following federally recognized Métis governments that is current, valid or both:
- Métis Nation British Columbia
- Otipemisiwak Métis Government,(formerly Métis Nation of Alberta)
- Métis Nation Saskatchewan
- Manitoba Métis Federation
- Métis Nation of Ontario
- The Northwest Territory Métis Nation
- A Membership card or letter from one of the member Nations of the Métis Settlements General Council, including Buffalo Lake, East Prairie, Elizabeth Lake, Fishing Lake, Gift Lake, Kikino, Paddle Prairie, and Peavine that is current, valid or both.
- A Inuit enrolment card or letter that is current, valid or both from:
- The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (Inuvialuit Final Agreement)
- Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (Nunavut Agreement)
- Makivik Corporation (James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, Nunavik Inuit Land Claims Agreement)
- The Nunatsiavut Government (Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement)
- A Inuit enrolment card that is current, valid or both that is issued through Nunavut Trust
Thesis and candidacy exams
We support all Indigenous students who wish to honour their traditions in ways that are meaningful to them. Learn about incorporating Indigenous traditions in your candidacy and/or thesis exams.
Indigenous graduate students are supported as they consider alternate thesis formats.
Students are encouraged to work with Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers as they write their theses. Elders and Knowledge Keepers may serve as Supervisors, Co-Supervisors, Supervisory Committee Members, Examiners, or Advisory Members.
Indigenous graduate students and those working with Indigenous Elders or Knowledge Keepers will be supported if they wish to incorporate Indigenous traditions into their oral exams. This form, to be completed by students and supervisors, lays out a plan for students to incorporate their traditions.
This form should be used by students requesting a scholarship from FGS to support the inclusion of ceremony and/or cultural protocols in their thesis defence.
Supervisors should work in consultation with students to arrange all cultural protocols (i.e. arranging the ceremony, inviting traditional knowledge keepers, presentation of offerings). More information and support for that process can be found on the Office of Indigenous Engagement website.
The form below should be used to request tobacco for offerings in support of thesis defence ceremonies or other knowledge sharing opportunities involving graduate students. Please note that information regarding cultural protocols (i.e. arranging the ceremony, inviting traditional knowledge keepers, presentation of offerings) and support for that process can be found on the Office of Indigenous Engagement website.
Information for examiners and advisory members
Candidacy and thesis oral exams
Examiners play an important role in ensuring that University of Calgary graduate students’ work is of high quality and makes a meaningful contribution to knowledge.
If you are serving as an examiner or advisory member, you have been chosen because you are an expert who is able to contribute valuable knowledge and expertise to the examination process. Thank you for agreeing to participate!
Your job at the exam is to ask questions about the student’s work and its broader significance. These can range from very specific questions about terminology or theory to very broad questions about the implications of the student’s work. If there is something you don’t understand, please feel free to ask a question about it. If you’d like to determine how well a student understands something, please ask a question about that.
Many exams begin with a presentation by the student. Then the examiners take turns asking questions. There are at least two rounds of questions. Each examiner usually asks a series of questions during each round. The series of questions from each examiner can take as long as 10 minutes per round. The neutral chair should let you know how long you have to ask questions and will inform you when your time is up. The entire exam should last about two hours.
- The student and any guests are asked to leave the examination room. If you are an advisory member, you will provide comments on the thesis and the student’s oral performance. Because advisory members don’t vote, you will then be asked to leave for the rest of the discussion.
- The neutral chair asks for examiners to provide a non-binding straw vote on the student’s performance on the thesis and the examination. Each examiner then has the opportunity to provide a rationale for their vote. This means that you will be asked to comment on what the student did well and what they need work on. The committee votes again at the end of the discussion.
- If the student is expected to make revisions to their thesis, the committee’s deliberations don’t end until everyone has come to an agreement on the revisions that the student must make and who will oversee them.
Please don’t feel stressed out about asking the “right” questions at the exam. If you are concerned about the kinds of questions to ask, please contact the Associate Dean, Policy and Program Development, Faculty of Graduate Studies.
Decolonizing dissertations
As a Western institution, the university imposes a set of expectations on its graduate students. The Faculty of Graduate Studies supports Indigenous graduate students in decolonization and indigenization efforts. Recent roundtables addressed a number of relevant issues.
What does decolonization mean?
What does it mean to decolonize graduate work?
Writing Symbols Lodge
A culturally appropriate environment that encourages and supports the success of Indigenous students in their pursuit of knowledge and higher education.
Writing Symbols Lodge provides academic, personal, and cultural support services and programs to prospective and current First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students, and offers a welcoming and supportive learning environment for the whole campus community.
Writing Symbols Lodge provides a Cultural Room where students can smudge during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.). Some faculties have cultural spaces that allow for smudging. Smudging outdoors can be done without restriction.
SAGE (Supporting Aboriginal Graduate Enhancement) UCalgary
SAGE UCalgary supports and nurtures the recruitment, retention and completion of Indigenous graduate students at the University of Calgary. This student-run program works to ensure that graduate students can connect with peers, mentors and the broader campus community as they develop their personal, academic and professional skills.
Would you like to know more? Contact the Faculty of Graduate Studies