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Katie Woolf spoke with CDU Deputy Vice-Chancellor Meredith Parry · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There are some pretty big changes set to come into
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: place at Charles Darwin University.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Well that's what's being reported.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Seventy seven employees could be looking as though they'll lose
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: their jobs under a proposed restructure to get the budget
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: under control. Now, the university is seeking feedback on a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: draft change proposal to unify vocational education and training as
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  Speaker 1: well as higher education across the university. Joining me in
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  Speaker 1: the studio right now to talk further about the changes
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: is Charles Darwin University's Deputy Vice Chancellor Meredith Parry.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Meredith.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time. Firstly, why does this
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  Speaker 1: restructure need to happen.
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  Speaker 3: We need to unify that and hire ed to repair
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  Speaker 3: our budget. So last year our budget was a nine
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: million dollar loss and we need to repair that. That's
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  Speaker 3: under council instruction. So we're working hard to do that
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  Speaker 3: and have been working hard over the last couple of years.
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  Speaker 2: What is that loss attributed to?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, is it a situation here where the way
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  Speaker 1: of the world and the way that people study is changing.
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  Speaker 3: I think there's certainly a number of factors and as
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  Speaker 3: I said, We've been working very hard over the last
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  Speaker 3: couple of years to repair our budget and one of
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  Speaker 3: the things that we did earlier this year was commissioned
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: to independent reports. Both those reports to look at our
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: vet operations. Both of them actually stated that our vet
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: operations are unsustainable financially unsustainable. So that's a combination of
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  Speaker 3: the population decreasing in the Northern Territory that we're all experiencing,
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  Speaker 3: funding decreasing. So we know that we need to do
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  Speaker 3: something now to repair that budget and that loss that
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  Speaker 3: we've been sustaining over the last few years since twenty
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  Speaker 3: twelve Merit.
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  Speaker 1: It's a big question on everybody's lip is how many
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: jobs will be lost.
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  Speaker 3: At the moment, Katie and I realized this is a
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  Speaker 3: really really difficult time for staff and difficult time for
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  Speaker 3: their colleagues and families. We're looking about seventy seven jobs
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  Speaker 3: that could potentially be no longer required and this will
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  Speaker 3: be part of the consultation that you mentioned earlier, So
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  Speaker 3: we're looking for staff to give us feedback around that proposal.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: And what areas would those jobs be lost from.
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  Speaker 3: Is it the vet sector, predominantly the vet sector, It
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  Speaker 3: is vet and high red as you bring two together,
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  Speaker 3: there are duplication across both, so there will be some
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  Speaker 3: impact on staff currently working in High RED but predominantly
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  Speaker 3: in the VET sector.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and I know that there are going to be
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  Speaker 1: some quite big changes with different courses.
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  Speaker 2: Can you talk us through some of those changes?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, certainly, Katie. Out of one hundred and ninety nine
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  Speaker 3: courses I've got, we're looking at nineteen courses not being
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: offered next year for new enrollments. So that means that
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: anyone currently enrolled will complete their course, we see to you.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So if there are students at the moment enrolled
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  Speaker 1: in any of those courses, they will actually be able
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  Speaker 1: to complete those absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: And can I just say out of those nineteen eight
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  Speaker 3: have no enrollments currently and have not had enrollments for
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  Speaker 3: some time.
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  Speaker 2: Is that right?
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  Speaker 1: Which areas or which courses don't have enrollments at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: We have a number of courses just off the top
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  Speaker 3: of my head. There's Certificate four in hairdressing has no
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: enrollments and that's because students do their apprenticeship at a
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  Speaker 3: Certificate three level. Okay, so we are still offering that.
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  Speaker 3: We offer that to not only girls, in the territory.
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  Speaker 3: I think it was mentioned that girls in the territory
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  Speaker 3: looking forward to doing hairdressing like to shout out there
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  Speaker 3: to all of the men in the territory that do
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  Speaker 3: the hair dressing too, and they'll still be able to
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  Speaker 3: do that with us now.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's I suppose one of the things that's
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  Speaker 1: been highlighted is the likes of hairdressing.
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  Speaker 2: And also business administration.
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  Speaker 1: I know even some of those areas of air conditioning
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  Speaker 1: technology will no longer be offered at Charles Dalwin University anymore.
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  Speaker 1: But can people or will people still be able to
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  Speaker 1: study those things if they do want to through the
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  Speaker 1: private sector or in other ways, or does it mean
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  Speaker 1: that in the territory now you simply will not be
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  Speaker 1: able to do those courses.
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  Speaker 3: No, that's certainly not the case. And if I pick
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  Speaker 3: up on air conditioning, we have no enrollments in that
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  Speaker 3: course and have not had enrollments in that course for
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  Speaker 3: some time. In the Business administration, it's a duplication of
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  Speaker 3: other courses that we offer in business. So simply streamlining
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  Speaker 3: the courses we have and updating the courses that we
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  Speaker 3: have so certainly students will be able to study business
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  Speaker 3: with US. It's a growing area and we encourage students
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  Speaker 3: to do so.
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  Speaker 1: A situation where, you know, with the likes of air conditioning,
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  Speaker 1: which which one would assume is quite a you know,
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  Speaker 1: a trade that's in high demand, I would suspect in
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  Speaker 1: a hot place like the territory, Why is it a.
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  Speaker 2: Situation where there's nobody enrolled in that course?
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  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Kate, I don't know that I can answer
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  Speaker 3: that one for you. I don't know why students tis
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  Speaker 3: not to do that.
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  Speaker 1: But it's not that they're studying somewhere else to do that,
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  Speaker 1: or the course at CDUs may be less attractive to.
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  Speaker 3: Them, I would say looking at the numbers, there certainly
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  Speaker 3: hasn't been enrollments for some time. So either there are
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  Speaker 3: on the job training or there are other opportunities.
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  Speaker 2: Yep.
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  Speaker 1: Now what's going to happen now with some of those
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  Speaker 1: courses you mentioned before that the students that are currently
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: enrolled in them, they'll be able to finish those I
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  Speaker 1: know that there's somewhere there aren't students enrolled, but in
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  Speaker 1: the ones where there are, they'll be able to finish
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  Speaker 1: those courses.
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  Speaker 3: Certainly. So we have a number of students that will
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  Speaker 3: complete by the end of this year.
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  Speaker 2: Yep.
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  Speaker 3: Any student that's still requires next year to finish their course,
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  Speaker 3: we will certainly complete those courses, so they will students
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  Speaker 3: who are currently enrolled will complete with the qualification medis.
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  Speaker 1: There's lots of people already getting in contact with us
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  Speaker 1: this morning on the text line and asking the question,
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  Speaker 1: if the university has to make these changes and there's
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  Speaker 1: jobs being lost, how on earth can they still afford
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: to build the new city campus.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for that question. It's one that comes
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  Speaker 3: up often. So the money available from the city deal
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  Speaker 3: is only available for infrastructure in the city and we
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  Speaker 3: were very very lucky, I think the Northern Territory was
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  Speaker 3: very very lucky to win a city deal. So the
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  Speaker 3: government grant can only be used for infrastructure in the city.
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  Speaker 3: We have a NAFE loan, so the Northern Australian Infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: funding to build the rest of the campus. That's a
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: very low interest or no interest for some period loans.
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  Speaker 3: So we have time to actually repair our budget before
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: we have to start making repayments on that.
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  Speaker 1: And so what's going to happen with the old CDU
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  Speaker 1: in the Northern suburbs.
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  Speaker 3: Our Casuarina campus is alive and well, and certainly there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of history in there and a lot of investment.
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  Speaker 3: We have our trades there where, we have our health
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  Speaker 3: precinct there, and we need to strengthen that. Some of
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  Speaker 3: the infrastructure is very, very old, and I think if
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: anybody walked around they could see that some of the
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  Speaker 3: buildings need replacing. Through the Napeloan, we've been able to
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  Speaker 3: secure some funds to do some work on our Casherinea campus.
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  Speaker 3: So certainly we're really looking at strengthening that campus, and
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  Speaker 3: we'd really love to look at industry participation on that campus.
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  Speaker 1: And so how will CDU be able to manage financing
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  Speaker 1: both of those campus.
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  Speaker 2: It's moving forwards.
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  Speaker 3: So again with the city deal, this is a one
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  Speaker 3: off and it provides us with the opportunity to build
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  Speaker 3: fit for purpose facilities that will attract international students and
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: domestic students. I think that's really important. There's been a
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  Speaker 3: lot of focus on are we're doing this just for
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  Speaker 3: international students? Now, we want to give our Northern Territory
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  Speaker 3: students the best experience they can have in a state
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  Speaker 3: of the art teaching and learning facility.
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  Speaker 1: I mean is it a situation here though, where money,
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  Speaker 1: more money is able to be made for the UNI
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  Speaker 1: through international students than what there is through local studying,
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  Speaker 1: and so they are a focus.
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  Speaker 3: I'll go back to the reason why VET changes are happening. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: our numbers have dropped. The numbers of people in the
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  Speaker 3: territory have dropped, and that has had a flow on effect.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: In High Reed. Over seventy percent of our students are online.
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  Speaker 3: We just don't have the number in the territory to
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  Speaker 3: service a university, so we are reliant on that government policy.
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  Speaker 3: At the end of twenty seventeen meant we were capped
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  Speaker 3: for the amount of domestic students. So whilst we would
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  Speaker 3: love to be offering more to gymestic students, that has
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  Speaker 3: been capped and we have to work within those caps.
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  Speaker 3: So international students are an area for growth. It allows
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: us to provide great teaching and learning and research opportunities
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  Speaker 3: for international students, but also then it allows us to
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  Speaker 3: provide that for our domestic students as well.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt the COVID situation that we're all in is
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  Speaker 1: having an impact when it comes to those international students
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  Speaker 1: being able to study.
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  Speaker 2: How hard is that making it look.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's making it very very hard. I think
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  Speaker 3: it's making it very hard for a lot of other universities.
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  Speaker 3: Were probably in a fortunate position where we didn't have
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  Speaker 3: as large a percentage of international students as some of
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  Speaker 3: the Southern universities. And we're also fortunate that some of
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  Speaker 3: our returning students actually made it into Australia before the
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  Speaker 3: COVID restrictions. But no doubt it has had a large
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  Speaker 3: impact and will continue to have an impact because it's
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  Speaker 3: not just year one, it'll be year two and three
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: where we don't receive the pipeline. So we're working really
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  Speaker 3: hard with our international students to provide online opportunities for
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  Speaker 3: them and certainly, as you know, to try and get
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  Speaker 3: some of our international students back into Australia.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: Ce TOU Deputy Vice Chancellor Meredith Parry, we really appreciate your.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Time this morning. Thank you so much for coming in.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: Thank you Katie,