Higher education in the Northwest Territories Higher education in the Northwest Territories Higher education in the Northwest Territories traces the development and expansion of higher education (also described as post-secondary or tertiary level education) in Canada's Northwest Territories. In Canada, education is a provincial or territorial concern and there is no national regulation nor accrediting body. There is only one post-secondary institution in the NWT: Aurora College. The former Arctic College was split into Aurora College and Nunavut Arctic College when Nunavut Territory was created in 1999. Aurora College has campuses in Inuvik, Fort Smith and Yellowknife. It has learning centres in many other communities in
Yellowknife Yellowknife began with the discovery of diamonds north of the city in 1991. The last of the gold mines in Yellowknife closed in 2004. Today, Yellowknife is primarily a government town and a service centre for the diamond mines. On April 1, 1999, its purview as capital of the NWT was reduced when the territory of Nunavut was split from the NWT. As a result, jurisdiction for that region of Canada was transferred to the new capital city of Iqaluit. Consequently, Yellowknife lost its standing as the Canadian capital city with the smallest population. Yellowknife is on the Canadian Shield,