Higher Education

A significant part of the BIE mission statement is "to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life." BIE has established the goal under the Program Accountability for Results Tool (PART) of "Increase the number of degrees granted by Junior and Senior Colleges/Universities for post-secondary students." Strategies for meeting this goal include Higher ED Grants, Graduate Fellowship Grants, BIA Summer Law Program and partnerships with Tribal colleges and universities.

Higher ED Grants
Higher ED Grants are provided to supplement financial assistance to eligible American Indian/Alaska Native students entering college seeking a baccalaureate degree. The Higher Education Grant Program is not an entitlement program. Students do not automatically receive funding because they are American Indian/Alaska Native. Students must meet certain criteria in order to apply for a Higher ED Grant.

Graduate Fellowship Grants
The Office of Indian Education Programs provides funding for graduate fellowships through the American Indian Graduate Center. Founders Robert L. Bennett (Wisconsin Oneida) and John C. Rainer (Taos Pueblo) created the program to assist American Indian college graduates to continue their education at the master's, doctorate and professional degree level. AIGC was founded to help open the doors to graduate education for American Indians and to help tribes obtain the educated Indian professionals they need to become more self-sufficient and to exercise their rights to self-determination.

BIA Summer Law Program
The challenges of law school can be demanding. American Indian students at the University of New Mexico have the opportunity to participate in a two-month program that prepares prospective lawyers for the rigors of law school. The Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians and Alaska Natives (PLSI), started in 1967, is a nationally recognized program administered by the American Indian Law Center, Inc., a not-for-profit organization. The eight-week program is partially funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and by donations. The professors who teach the classes evaluate the students as if they were actually in their first year of law school. As part of the curriculum, students read client interviews, write legal briefs and argue before a panel of judges enabling students to get a first-hand account of the structure of the U.S. judicial system. The Program has 86 to 98 percent success rate with students successfully completing the program and being accepted into law school.

Additional Higher ED Grants From the US Department of Education