The first would take place in October 2017 in Oulu, Finland, and the second would take place in October 2018 in Rovaniemi, Finland (both back-to-back to the Senior Arctic Officials meetings).

At this stage, we are administering a survey to determine:

            1) the level of interest among the member universities of the UArctic in engaging in the Model Arctic Council 2017-2018;

            2) which universities will offer courses containing at least a unit related to Arctic governance to prepare their students for participation; and

            3) the willingness of home institution faculty to mentor their students who will participate.

Moreover, we want to confirm contact details for the person managing his or her institution’s participation in the Model Arctic Council.

Please help us plan for the Model Arctic Council in Finland by completing the attached survey and e-mailing it to uaf-mac@alaska.edu by November 30, 2016.

About the Model Arctic Council 2017-2018

The Model Arctic Council is an experimental learning exercise, in which students from various disciplines and universities across the Arctic region come together to simulate the work of the Arctic Council by representing member states, Permanent Participants, and Observers in Working Group, Senior Arctic Officials, and Ministerial meetings.

Themes and procedures will be determined depending on the level of participation.

The Model Arctic Council 2017-2018 would be hosted by the University of Oulu in 2017 and University of Lapland in 2018 and led by Professor Lassi Heininen. The program will be financially supported by the Foreign Ministry of Finland as one of the activities of the Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council 2017-2019.

The Model Arctic Council is a continual program organized as a Thematic Network (TN) of UArctic led by Professors Mary Ehrlander and Brandon Boylan at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Questions and comments about the Model Arctic Council in Finland should be directed to Lassi Heininen (lassi.heininen@ulapland.fi), Mary Ehrlander (mfehrlander@alaska.edu), and Brandon Boylan (bmboylan@alaska.edu).