Coll猫ge Nordique has received accreditation to become a post-secondary institution from the GNWT, meaning it can now grant diplomas.
According to a news release, they're also the first accredited francophone post-secondary institution in the circumpolar North.
"College Nordique, now accredited as a private training institution, has the ability to provide a post-secondary education in a student centred, accessible, high quality, relevant, and accountable institution," Caitlin Cleveland, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, stated.
The school submitted an application to the GNWT for accreditation last October, according to the release.
Students will now be able to access territorial student financial assistance and the school will work to ensure the transferability of their diplomas, stated Patrick Arsenault, executive director of the college
College Nordique, as of last year, had 645 registrations, said Arsenault.
"In terms of full-time,or part-time, post-secondary students that are registering a degree, we have one person registered this year and we had two last year," he said. "Our numbers were fairly small because we didn't have accreditation, so we had to partner with other schools to offer programs, which was quite limiting. So, I'm hoping that in the future, we'll be able to grow our enrolment now that we can actually create our own programs."
Arsenault added that they'll still be a French-speaking college, so it's hard to predict how much the school will grow with the upgrade.
But he said it opens up plenty of doors for the school and their students.
"It feels like, 'Finally, we did it. We're here,' but it's just starting, really," he said.
Students at the college can now transfer their credits earned there to other universities, if they decide to move and depending on where they are transferring to.
"Like any other accredited college, if someone goes to Aurora College, they can transfer to, let's say, the University of Ottawa, but only if it fits the requirement of the program at the University of Ottawa," said Arsenault.
He added that the college is most popular for their language courses, as well as courses related to diversity, equity and inclusion and early childhood education.
"We're also interested in building a first year of university so students could do one year that would be more general here," he said.
There was no law in place for College Nordique to pursue this sort of process until December 2022, said Ang茅lique Ruzindana Umunyana, chair of the board of directors for the college, who cited the NWT Post-Secondary Act.
"It's a dream come true," Umunyana said with a smile form ear to ear, when asked how she's feeling about the upgrade. "But we still have a lot of work to do."
