This 5-year partnership supports the development and progression of UBC’s Bachelor of Indigenous Land Stewardship (BILS) program.
The BILS program is the first four-year undergraduate degree of its kind. Co-developed by a team of First Nations natural resource and governance experts and the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia, the BILS is an interdisciplinary four-year direct-entry degree, focused on educating a new generation of land stewards. Graduates will work with, and for, Indigenous governments as they reclaim their lands and stewardship. Drawing from high levels of community engagement and guided by a First Nations-led Indigenous Land Stewardship Steering Committee, the BILS program offers a highly innovative curriculum and hybrid teaching delivery model to recruit and retain Indigenous learners.
This partnership will:
• Build a working BILS demonstration model, developed through highly collaborative processes that engage Indigenous communities.
• Develop three working community learning hubs by 2028, Haida Gwaii, Williams Lake and the Okanagan region.
• Support faculty exchanges with related institutions. For example, hosting annual ‘Nation-building’ conference to build relations and mobilize research related to Indigenous priorities.
• Graduate first BILS Indigenous students in 2028.
• Following a ‘learning by doing’ approach, implement course-level and annual program evaluations, and a comprehensive evaluation of the BILS demonstration model in 2027-2028.
• Drawing from evaluations, implement any recommendations from the Council of Advisors into the “Progression” phase of the BILS program.
