Vancouver Island University (VIU) is excited to welcome students living outside Canada with an ancestral connection to Canadian Indigenous groups to study at the lower domestic tuition rate

VIU’s Board of Governors has recently approved this initiative as a commitment to fulfill the recommendations of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It also supports the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Jay Treaty of 1795. This treaty secured the rights of Indigenous peoples to freely cross the US-Canada border, by land or water, in order to carry on trade or commerce with each other as they had done before the border was established.

We look forward to working with our communities and welcoming students under this program and to continuing to support initiatives that invest in and actively support reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous nations.

For more information, please contact Registration@viu.ca.

Jay Treaty Media Release

How to Apply

For applicants applying under the Jay Treaty, please provide a letter in support of your application as per the template below, and apply using the International Student Application.

Jay Treaty Letter of Support Template