Education:

Approximately 40,000 students are studying at Northern Ontario's three universities and six colleges of applied arts and technology. They have advanced facilities and offer specialised programs in geology, forestry, aviation, engineering and the environment.

The training infrastructure includes:

• Three universities in Northern Ontario provide a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs in French & English.
• Six Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology provide students with the opportunity to develop career-related skills in business, applied arts, technology, and health sciences.
• The Northern Ontario School of Medicine started taking in students in September 2005. The school is a collaboration between Laurentian University and Lakehead University. NOSM will enroll 56 students per year, with 24 based in Thunder Bay and 32 in Sudbury.
• Private training institutions offer courses in a variety of disciplines, including business, heavy equipment operation, information technology, management, mining, safety, technical & trades, and transportation.
• Employer-based training, whereby staff or consultants provide customised training programs to employees. Employers also play the primary role in providing apprenticeship training for workers in the skilled trades.
• An excellent network of distance education sites and programs. Distance education is a valuable means to market the North's expertise in key sectors globally and also to increase educational opportunities in remote areas of the North. Contact North, a distance education network, operates access sites in more than 90 northern communities (including 22 First Nations).

Location of University and College Campuses in Northern Ontario:

Academic and industry partnerships are fostered through on-going research initiatives across several fields such as:

• Forest management and silviculture research at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre, the Ontario Forest Research Institute and Lakehead University;
• Mining research and product development through Cambrian College's Northern Centre for Advanced Technology; Laurentian University's Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation; and the Canadian Mining Industry Research Organization;
• Geophysical and geochemical research with Laurentian University and the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines' Ontario Geological Survey;
• Technology development and commercialization at the Northwestern Ontario Technology Centre - a partnership of Lakehead University and Confederation College;
• Fundamentals of basic physics at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory operating underground at the 6800-foot level of INCO's Creighton Mine with the world's first heavy water neutrino detector;
• DNA research at Lakehead University's Paleo-DNA Laboratory;
• Clinical and molecular biology research through the Northeastern and Northwestern Regional Cancer Centres; and
• Agriculture research programs undertaken by the Thunder Bay Agricultural Research Consortium and at the New Liskeard and Emo Agriculture Research Stations.