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Katie Woolf spoke with CDU Vice-Chancellor Scott Bowman · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf on Mixed one oh four
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  Speaker 1: point nine thanks to Joyce Main Darwin. You are listening
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  Speaker 1: to Mix one oh four point nine and joining us
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  Speaker 1: live on the line from Alice Springs. Actually Charles Darwin.
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  Speaker 1: University Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman, good morning.
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  Speaker 2: To you, Good morning Katie. Good to be with you.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you two. I apologize that we're running late this morning. Now.
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  Speaker 1: I know that plenty of people probably saw the report
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  Speaker 1: yesterday that the university is going to record a surplus
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  Speaker 1: of about twenty four million dollars in the upcoming annual report.
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  Speaker 1: How is this possible?
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  Speaker 2: Well, look, it was a very unusual year last year,
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  Speaker 2: so a lot of our operations more or less closed down,
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  Speaker 2: so a lot of our expenses dropped, although we were
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  Speaker 2: paying some redundancies out, so there was all of that
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  Speaker 2: going on. Our international numbers actually surprisingly held it well.
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  Speaker 2: And I think over the last few years the Universe
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  Speaker 2: has been doing a lot to get its finances back
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  Speaker 2: in shape. So it was a bit of an unusual year.
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  Speaker 2: But we are pretty confident now that we've got the
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  Speaker 2: finances under control and we should be running surpluses into
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  Speaker 2: the future.
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  Speaker 1: And so what does that mean for the UNI in
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  Speaker 1: terms of courses and in terms of you know, staff
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  Speaker 1: that had lost their jobs. I know that there certainly
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  Speaker 1: needed to be a bit of a raining in of spending,
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  Speaker 1: but what does it mean in terms of moving forwards.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it definitely means we can start planning for the
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  Speaker 2: future and we've got a bit of flexibility in resources
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  Speaker 2: to do things. So really looking at what programs we
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  Speaker 2: need to deliver for the territory and now starting to
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  Speaker 2: put those in place. So for example, as you said,
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  Speaker 2: I'm in Alice Springs today and we go in to
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  Speaker 2: start a Diploma of Nursing course here in Alice Springs
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  Speaker 2: which will really be coordinated from here and we'll have
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  Speaker 2: students on campus, but we're looking at running that right
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  Speaker 2: throughout the territory. I think you're going to see that
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  Speaker 2: health is going to be a really big focus at
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  Speaker 2: a university going forward, because we've got such problems in
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  Speaker 2: the territory with health workforce needs really holding up the
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  Speaker 2: healthcare sector. So we really want to partner with providers
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  Speaker 2: to do something about that.
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  Speaker 1: And is that going to be a priority for you
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  Speaker 1: as the vice chancellor to really make I guess it
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  Speaker 1: more of a priority to grow our own in some
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  Speaker 1: of these different industries.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got to become self sufficient in the territory
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  Speaker 2: for people. And you know it's really been shown with
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  Speaker 2: the borders closed, in the international borders closing, we've not
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  Speaker 2: been able to get healthcare professionals from overseas. We've got
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  Speaker 2: to really address that and start doing a lot more.
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  Speaker 2: So I think you're going to see the University over
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  Speaker 2: the next few months be doing a lot more in nursing,
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  Speaker 2: Midwiffree Allied House and also looking about how we go
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  Speaker 2: about medical training in the NT as well.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you know that there is a lot
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  Speaker 1: more happening right across Australia when it comes to studies
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  Speaker 1: with online the ability to learn online is that something
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  Speaker 1: that helps significantly When you do talk about minimizing those
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  Speaker 1: operational costs, well not really.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, the costs of delivering online are equal to
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  Speaker 2: and some people have said even more than face to face.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, our biggest cost are our staff our academics
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  Speaker 2: to deliver and basically the cost of the academics to
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  Speaker 2: deliver online or face to face is about the same. Look,
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  Speaker 2: it definitely gives a lot more people access to education.
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  Speaker 2: But one of the things I'm also looking at is
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  Speaker 2: how we balance that with getting more students on campus,
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  Speaker 2: having more student life on campus. A lot of our
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  Speaker 2: young people sort of head off down south to the
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  Speaker 2: southern universities. Well, we've got to really give them a
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  Speaker 2: reason to come to CDU, and that's got to be
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  Speaker 2: about more life on our campuses.
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  Speaker 1: I do want to and we've had a couple of
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  Speaker 1: people get in contact to ask when are we going
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  Speaker 1: to see the final design for the Charles Darwin University
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  Speaker 1: City Campus.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think that's pretty close. We are going through
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  Speaker 2: the final design on that. We are taking that through
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  Speaker 2: the various regulators look for approvals and things. But I
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  Speaker 2: think that will we're probably talking weeks rather than months
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  Speaker 2: on that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we'll have to make sure that we get you
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  Speaker 1: back on closer to that time. I'm sorry it's a
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  Speaker 1: short and sharp interview this morning, Vice Chancellor. We were
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  Speaker 1: running a little bit late waiting for the Deputy Prime Minister.
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  Speaker 1: We really appreciate you having a chat with us this
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  Speaker 1: morning though.
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  Speaker 2: Look, anytime happy to talk about anything.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Good on you, Scott, Thanks so much. That's
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  Speaker 1: the Charles Darwin University Vice Chancellor there, Scott Bowman,