Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / CDU Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman is encouraging people to open their homes to international students with 600 arriving in Darwin in coming weeks

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CDU Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman is encouraging people to open their homes to international students with 600 arriving in Darwin in coming weeks · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now we know that Territorians with a spare room in
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  Speaker 1: their homes have the chance to earn some extra money.
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  Speaker 1: With up to six hundred Charles Dalen University international students
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  Speaker 1: expected to flood into Darwin in the next few weeks,
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  Speaker 1: with well not many places to stay. Now. In preparation
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  Speaker 1: for the student's arrival, Charles Dalen University is boosting the
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  Speaker 1: use of CDU Study Stays. It's an online platform providing
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  Speaker 1: listings of accommodation vacancies around CDU's Casarina Waterfront and Palmerston campuses.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to talk more about
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  Speaker 1: this is Charles Dalen University Vice Chancellor, Professor Scott Bowman.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning now, Professor.
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  Speaker 1: Why is CDU calling on Territorians to open their doors
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  Speaker 1: to international students.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we've just got so many international students wanting to
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  Speaker 2: come to Darwin and study. We add a massive intake
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  Speaker 2: into semester one and we're just blown away. The else
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  Speaker 2: semester intake, which traditionally is smaller than one, is actually
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  Speaker 2: going to be even bigger. So we've got a lot
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  Speaker 2: of students come in here. I think there's some exciting
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  Speaker 2: developments going to be coming in the midterm with developers
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  Speaker 2: building accommodation. But in the short medium zon you know,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to need beds.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we did just catch up with the Treasurer
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  Speaker 1: Evil La and also Minister for Transport and Infrastructure and
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  Speaker 1: spoke about some of those potential developments. But I guess
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  Speaker 1: in the short term it does prove a bit of
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  Speaker 1: a worry if there is nowhere for are these wonderful
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  Speaker 1: students to stay.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think things for the rest of this
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  Speaker 2: year are going to be tight. To be honest, I
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  Speaker 2: think probably the city has just about got the busy
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  Speaker 2: to take the students that are coming. If we have
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  Speaker 2: things like study stays and home stays, next year is
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  Speaker 2: going to be much tighter, I think so. Yeah, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: but it's wonderful to be looking at problems of success.
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  Speaker 2: I guess, you know, when you.
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  Speaker 1: Look at how many we are expecting to arrive, how
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  Speaker 1: dire is the situation right now if people don't open
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  Speaker 1: up their homes to international students.
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  Speaker 2: Look, we've not got students screaming at the moment. Our
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  Speaker 2: student services are working with people to find places. There's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of word of mouth amongst students. But it
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  Speaker 2: is going to be, as I said, really tight in
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  Speaker 2: five weeks time when we're we're looking probably another seven
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  Speaker 2: hundred students turning up. So yeah, it's pretty tight.
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  Speaker 1: Now, professor, tell me what is being done to really
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  Speaker 1: ensure their safety, because I know, for me, if I
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  Speaker 1: was in a situation where I thought, Okay, one of
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  Speaker 1: my children's going to travel to the other side of
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  Speaker 1: the world to study, I'd probably feel more comfortable with
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  Speaker 1: them living on campus rather than living with a family
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  Speaker 1: or people that I don't know in a whole other country.
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  Speaker 2: Look, that's a really good point. So there's kind of
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  Speaker 2: a number of things, so you could live on campus,
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  Speaker 2: but UNI Lodge, sorry, our student accommodation is pretty much
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  Speaker 2: full to the gunnels Uni Lodge, which is stuff down
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  Speaker 2: the road that's pretty full at the moment. So there's
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  Speaker 2: probably three things that where our students go. Some go
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  Speaker 2: to real estate agents and rent an apartment and then
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  Speaker 2: share with other students. That is very popular and a
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  Speaker 2: lot of students end up doing that anyway because they
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  Speaker 2: just feel more comfortable to have the freedom. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: we will continue to work with real estate and landlords
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  Speaker 2: to do that. We are after the terrible circumstances around CEASAP.
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  Speaker 2: We are really getting students to report any worries that
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  Speaker 2: they are having with security, with locks and things. We're
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  Speaker 2: then looking at how we can work with the landlords
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  Speaker 2: to improve that or even just go in and improve
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  Speaker 2: it ourselves. We are looking We've just done a survey
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  Speaker 2: some of the problem students are out there and are
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  Speaker 2: on the buses. We're looking at putting a university bus
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  Speaker 2: on doing a circuit around all the campuses and other places.
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  Speaker 2: So that's one option. The other option is home stays,
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  Speaker 2: which is really where you do become part of someone's family,
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  Speaker 2: probably more appropriate for the younger students, and we're working
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  Speaker 2: with We've got two home stay organizations in the territory,
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  Speaker 2: AHN and Global Experience. They do vet those families very carefully. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so you know, and go and visit and do that.
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  Speaker 2: And then the other one that we're really pushing is
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  Speaker 2: study stays, which is much much more like the former.
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  Speaker 2: So if you've got a granny flat, if you've got
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  Speaker 2: a room, if it's a number of students wanting to share,
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  Speaker 2: you can put your your accommodation on up there. We
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  Speaker 2: will have a look at the and we encourage people
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  Speaker 2: pictures on We'll have a look at the pictures of
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  Speaker 2: the things like the security and things like that and
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  Speaker 2: do that.
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  Speaker 1: So it sounds like there is a bit, quite a
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  Speaker 1: bit of work that goes on behind the scenes. Professor.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we've spoken before, you and I have spoken
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  Speaker 1: before as well about the aims to really bring up
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  Speaker 1: to seven thousand international students into the Northern Territory over
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  Speaker 1: the coming years. It was part of the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: government's Tercy Report. And we know that the new campus
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  Speaker 1: is going to be opening. Where are we going to
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  Speaker 1: house all of those students?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, another really good point, and it's interesting. In
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  Speaker 2: the Turk we were talking, they were talking about ten
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  Speaker 2: thousand students in the territory. We said that we could
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  Speaker 2: probably come to the party in that and probably provide
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  Speaker 2: six thousands. But if things carry I think you know
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  Speaker 2: the figure you quote, it's seven thousand. The way our
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  Speaker 2: recruitment's going at the moment, we could well do that.
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  Speaker 2: And we were looking we've always run at about two thousand,
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  Speaker 2: we're looking at doubling that in the next three years
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  Speaker 2: before and then up to eight thousand in the next
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  Speaker 2: two years now, two thousand of those will be on
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  Speaker 2: our Sydney campus, but that is still six thousand or
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  Speaker 2: possibly seven thousand here. Now. I think what is happening
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  Speaker 2: now is, you know, I came in, I started talking
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  Speaker 2: a big game and we were going to get all
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  Speaker 2: these international students, and I think people are a bit
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  Speaker 2: skeptical and the develops were you know, we've heard all
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  Speaker 2: this before. Yeah, yeah, sure that's going to happen. What's
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  Speaker 2: different now is we can show people we getting the
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  Speaker 2: students were our office in India is really working well.
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  Speaker 2: We've got an exponential climbing international students. So developers are
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  Speaker 2: now getting much more interested. We're talking to a number
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  Speaker 2: of them that are talking about building substantial numbers of this,
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  Speaker 2: so we can back up what we're saying now with evidence.
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  Speaker 2: I saw that there's some proposal, I think from one
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  Speaker 2: side of politics and about repurposing some of the unused
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  Speaker 2: buildings in the town. I think that's a great option.
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  Speaker 2: But I think all of those you know, you know,
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  Speaker 2: repurposing buildings, you're probably talking twelve months building from scratch,
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  Speaker 2: you look in eighteen months for two years. I think
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  Speaker 2: that's all going to come online. But it's a short
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  Speaker 2: term period where it's going to be tough.
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  Speaker 1: Now, tell me if there are people listening this morning
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  Speaker 1: who are keen to open their homes to students, where
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  Speaker 1: can they go to get some further information and you know,
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  Speaker 1: maybe sort things out so that they are able to help.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, if you're looking for that study home stay
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  Speaker 2: experience where the student comes in and is very much
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  Speaker 2: part of your family almost and you know, they'll be
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  Speaker 2: having food with you and you know, really be a
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  Speaker 2: part of the family. And we've done that. You know,
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  Speaker 2: Anita and I have done that a number of times
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  Speaker 2: and we've just loved it. And we've still got friends
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  Speaker 2: in Japan that we're students that come and stayed with us.
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  Speaker 2: They're probably best to go through AHN and Global Experience
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  Speaker 2: because they do all the bedding on that. If, on
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  Speaker 2: the other hand, you've got a granny flat or you've
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  Speaker 2: got a room that you just want to rent out
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  Speaker 2: and the student just comes and goes and stays there,
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  Speaker 2: then go online. Does google CDU study stays and you'll
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  Speaker 2: go to our study stays page and then you can
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  Speaker 2: list your property what you've got to offer. You can say,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you know, we're really into music. We've really
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  Speaker 2: liked someone that lives into music staying with us, or
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  Speaker 2: I absolutely hate music. Please don't send a musician. You
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  Speaker 2: can put your preferences into the kind of student looking
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  Speaker 2: at well.
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  Speaker 1: Professor Scott Bowman from Charlestown University, it is always good
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  Speaker 1: to catch up with you. Thanks so much for your
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  Speaker 1: time this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's great to see you back yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Thank you for rescheduling for us, Very much appreciated.