Overall Goal
- Maximize the educational benefit from each country’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council
- Enhance collaboration and student mobility among Arctic and non-Arctic educational institutions
- Expand students' awareness of the Arctic Council, Arctic issues, and international politics
- Prepare students to assume leadership roles in the Arctic
- Develop students' public speaking, diplomacy, negotiation, and deliberation skills
Main Activities
The Model Arctic Council is open to students from any higher education institution in the world. The program occurs biennially, taking place at a University of the Arctic in the country chairing the Arctic Council.
The program includes orientation, plenary lectures, and meetings in which participants simulate the work of Arctic Council working groups, Senior Arctic Officials, and Ministers. The outcome of the Model Arctic Councils are reported to Senior Arctic Officials (SAOs) and other Arctic Council officials.
Past Activities
Activities of the Thematic Network from 2016 to present
- The fourth Model Arctic Council, March 22-27, 2020 (virtual). Students participate in Fourth Model Arctic Council
- The Model Arctic Council Thematic Network administered a Model Arctic Council program in Rovaniemi, Finland from October 29 to November 2, 2018. You can see the program here.
- Model Arctic Council has collaborated with University of Alaska Fairbanks faculty and administrators on expanding the University’s engagement with UArctic and raising the University’s profile as America’s Arctic Research university.
- The network applied for a U.S. Department of Education Title VI International Research and Studies Program grant to conduct research on the longer term benefits of the Model Arctic Council initiative.
- The TN co-organized and led a successful Model Arctic Council at Dartmouth College, June 2017, as part of the Science and Diplomacy in the Arctic conference.
- Presentation on the Model Arctic Council and their work at the UArctic Congress in St. Petersburg, September 2016 and at the Association of International Educators Administrators session during the Week of the Arctic at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, May 2017.
- Publication of a peer-reviewed article on simulation pedagogy based on the Model Arctic Council program held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, March 2016. The Model Arctic Council: Educating Postsecondary Students on Arctic Issues and Governance through Simulation, abstract can be found here.
- The first fully developed international Model Arctic Council was held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Fairbanks, Alaska in March 2016.