The role of affirmative action in higher education for indigenous people: the case of Yakutsk (Russia) and Tromsø (Norway)

Abstract

This thesis is dedicated to the issue of affirmative action in higher education for indigenous people. It includes two case studies that cover the research topic in two areas Yakutsk in Far-East Russia (The North-Eastern Federal University) and Tromsø (The Arctic University of Norway) in Northern Norway. The motivation for the study and for the choice of the cases comes from my personal experience. I personally was declined admission in favor of an indigenous representative in one case, and also I was granted a scholarship on the quota-program in another case. Indigenous people in Norway and in Russia are granted by special scholarships and quota programs for admission to the Universities, where a number of seats are preserved for them. This study examines the intentions, regulations, scope and the results of these mechanisms. It also discusses definition of indigenous people, the role of affirmative action for the state, the meaning of higher education for indigenous people, and, in general, the need for affirmative action in higher education for indigenous people. The main finding of this thesis is the mismatch of the intents and implementations of affirmative action. Affirmative action was aimed to equalize opportunities of indigenous people to majority people, which justify regulations of affirmative action that may seem to be discriminatory at the first glance. However, practices of affirmative action in higher education in case of Norway and Russia are not large scale and did not bring as notable results as I would have expect from the intents of it.