Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Charles Darwin University New Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman AO

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with Charles Darwin University New Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman AO · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: political landscape, Kaye Wolf has it covered on three sixty.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Every one is listening Mixed one oh four point nine.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Now you may or may not be aware, but we've
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: actually got a new vice chancellor at Charles Darwin University
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and I'm pleased to say that he joins me in
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the studio right now. It is Charles Darwin University's new
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: vice chancellor, Scott Bowman AO. Good morning to you, scottsh
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: good morning.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: It's fantastic to be Yeah, great.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: To have you in the studio. And well, I believe
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: it's day eight on the job.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Yep, day eight, so looking forward to the day and
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: actually a day of low humidity which is fantastic.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Glorious weather we call this. And I know that you've
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: been living in regional Queensland for the last well several years,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: so you'd be used to this type of weather.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Really, our home base is seeing Cans, so yeah,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: the weather is similar. But I think this is a
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: bit like Can's weather on steroids. So it was lovely
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: over the weekend to get that breeze come through.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, Scott, tell us a little bit more about
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: where you have come from, and I guess you know,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: give us an idea of where you see things going
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: here in the territory.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Oh well, I was Deputy Vice Chancellor International and Services
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: at James Cook University for about seven or eight years
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: and then moved on to be the Vice Chancellor and
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: President at Central queens And University and I was there
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: for about ten years and in that time we really
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: build it up to a national university, just about the
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: biggest regional university with campuses everywhere in Australia with the
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: exception of the Northern Territory. Interestingly, so it's fantastic to
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: come to Charles Darwin University. So I retired actually and
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: had other plans, but actually really missed the sector and
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: what it's like to be in a university and definitely
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: didn't want to go back to any old university. But
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: when the best university came up here, I am yeah.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Well, and it's great to have you here. I know
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: that there has been a real push in previous years
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to really draw international students to Charles Darwin University. COVID
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: has had a big impact on that. Is that still
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: part of the plan though?
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Oh look, I think international students are incredibly important, and
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: probably not for the obvious reason which I will come onto,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: but really our students, our Australian students, Northern Territory students
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: are going to graduate and have global careers and to
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: be able to study with people around the world and
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: build up a network of contacts which they can use
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: in their careers is incredibly important. So it's a great
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: shame we're missing out on that at the moment. The
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: other one is having an international student in riches education,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: just having lots of different perspectives on things. And of
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: course there is the revenue. Students bring in a lot
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: of money into Australian universities and this is really important
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: and for what we want to achieve as the universities now,
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I guess with each vice chancellor we do see different
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: sort of different direction at the university. And I'm not
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: anticipating that things are going to change, you know, enormously immediately,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: But what do you see as being sort of the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: way forward for Charles Darwin University.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Look, I think a real feature of my career up
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: until this point has been around engagement and engagement with
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: communities and engagement with business. But internally, also engagement with
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: our staff and our students. And I think it's no
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: secret the university has gone through a pretty rough patch and.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Some rough years.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: So really building up an exciting internal culture where we're
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: a fun place to work and a great place to
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: work and a great place to study, that's very much
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: at the top of the agenda. But really getting out
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: and engaging with the communities of the Northern Territory is
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: really important.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I know that quite all in the territory, and I'm
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: a parent of quite young kids, you know, ten and eight,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: but quite often you see our young people here in
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the territory move off to study somewhere else. Do you
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: think it would be a good thing to try and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: keep as many of our territory kids here as possible.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Look, I don't think we should keep people where they
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: don't want to be. So people say we need a
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: big university to keep our young people here, and I
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: always say, well, you're probably better off put your money
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: into a prison.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: So you know, that's not what we're about.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: And if young people get to that age and want
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: to go off to the big city, good luck to them,
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: and we will do everything to switch kids on to
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: university study. And if that isn't with us, really that's
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: still a success for us. But what we've got to
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: do is give people of the territory a really viable
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: alternative because there's a lot of people that can't go
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: off to the big city. They can't leave the Northern
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: territory for family reasons, social reasons, cultural reasons, lots of
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: reasons why people can't leave. So we've got to make
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: sure there's an alternative here which is absolutely of the
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: absolute top quality and the full range of subjects. And
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: if in doing that we attract some of those people
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: that were thinking are going south, fantastic.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I know you said that you have worked at James
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Cook University here the Deputy Vice Chancellor. Let me get
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: that title correct. At James Cook University. I know at
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: JCU over the years that they've had a real focus
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: on some of the different sort of faculties or different areas,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and marine biology was one of those areas here at CDU.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Do you think that we need to sort of to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: find a real area of expertise that we see other
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: people come from other parts of Australia and indeed all
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: around the world to study here in the territory.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's interesting.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: It's really an unknown gem in some ways Charles Darwin University,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: because we already have some areas where we are absolutely
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: world and leading the rest of Australia. And in fact,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: I was talking to the Vice Chancellor Sandra Hardin from
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: James Cook University over the weekend and we were saying
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: between us and if you put into the mixed Central
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: queens And University, incredible strengths between the three universities. But
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: you are quite right, we really need to leverage and
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: get the word out that we have got some incredibly
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: unique things in this region which the university is working in.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: So you know, when you look at the environment that
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: we have here in the territory, when you get out
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: to Kakadoo, when you look to the south to the
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: desert regions, these are absolutely absolutely unique. James Cook University
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: has done incredibly well at attracting students into those unique areas,
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: so particularly American students into marine biology. But we can
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: offer something just as unique as James Cook University.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: So do you reckon it's just about marketing ourselves a
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: bit differently.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Look, I think is one thing, but it's about that
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: truly deep engagement. So it's not really just about market slogans,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: it's really talking about what's at your heart. And in fact,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: that's something that I'm doing at the university at the moment,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: looking what should our new strategic plan should be and
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: really I see that as the document of the heart.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: What is our vision and mission and what are our values?
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: So I want to.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Engage across the board to really find that out and
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: then really leverage off that.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And how are you going to do that?
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Well, definitely going out to all the stakeholders, So definitely
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: want to talk to our staff, our students, our alumni,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: our counsel, our community, and really get to the heart
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: what is really important to this university and then really
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: drive the place as a values led organization.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Now, how do you see c DOU really moving forward
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: post because I know that that's had quite a big
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: impact not only on our university, but universities all around
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the world.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look at the moment, we are faring pretty well.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Around sixteen percent of how students are international students. Other
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: universities are way up over the fifty percent, so they
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: are really hurting badly. Look, we are really sustainable without
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: those international students, but in fact, the international students haven't
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: gone away. Our recruitment is up this year interestingly enough,
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: but we are of course looking at how we can
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: support those students, both offshore and onshore. So yeah, look,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: it is tough times, probably not as tough for us
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: as some universities, and definitely COVID has led to more
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: domestic students coming to universities, so we've seen an upswing
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: in our Australian students.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Now on those on the recruitment of those international students.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Is work underway to try to get some more of
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: those international students here on campus.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Well, look, we're looking at that, but we're not putting
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: out all our eggs into that one, Barksket. I mean
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: c dou did incredibly well getting that flight in and
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: I wasn't here at the time, but I think the
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: whole of the sector, the whole of Australian universities looked
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: at CEDU and very envious at what had been done. Now,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: if we can do something like that into the future,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: that will be great, but we're definitely not putting lots
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: of emphasis on that. I think international students will start
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: coming back. I don't think we're going to see them
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: this year. I'm thinking probably midyear next year, so we're
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: sort of gearing up for that. But we are looking
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: those students that do him roll us with us and
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: are based all around the world. We're looking at how
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: we can support them.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, now, I know that late last week you were
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: at the site of the new City campus. How are
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: you feeling about that?
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: How incredible? I think we own the biggest hole that
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Darwin's ever seen.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: It did look pretty impressive, but it's.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: A pretty impressive hole.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: But what's important is what's going to grow out of
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: that hole, and it will be a fantastic state of
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: the campus. It will be a center where again I'm
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: going to come back to that word engagement, where we
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: can engage with the community, where we can sort of
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: bring businesses in, when we can bring in community groups,
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: indigenous groups, and really be part of the fabric of
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: the city. This is actually the way that lots of
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: universities are going actually coming into the city. If you
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: go back to the seventies, you built universes right on
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: the periphery. They were kind of ivory towers that were
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: apart from the population. We really want to be part
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: of the population and that city campus will allow us
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: to do that.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: And has the design of that facility been finalized? Because
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I know that last year some people were a little
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: bit worried about the way that it was looking, and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: it was a little bit you know, some were concerned
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: that the design sort of didn't quite fit in to
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the tropical lifestyle. Has that design been finalized?
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Look, I don't think it's been finally finally finally finalized.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, still a way to go, but.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: I think the comments that were made have been taken
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: on board. And I think, I know the some of
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: the artist's impressions which look like a greenhouse, which I
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: thought that might be a bit warm in there. I
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: don't think, you know, that is not going to be
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: the final design. So people are looking at the design.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: It's very much looking to be a building that's suitable
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: for the tropics. I think it would be something that
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: we can all be really proud of.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Now, what is your ultimate goal upon taking on this
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: role really at Charles Daleen University.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: Look, I want to build a university that the territory
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: can be really proud of. And I think at the moment,
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: you know, you know, I read the press and I
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: think there's a lot of people that are a bit
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: disparaging about the university, and as I said, we've been
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: through some tough years. I do really want to set
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: us back to a point where we can be really
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: proud of this university, and that means increasing our offerings.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: We've particularly around vocational education. We have got to do
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: a lot more in that field. We've got a look
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: that we are offering all the courses that the territory needs.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: We want to be a university which has real national
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: and international standing, so really promoting the university. Look, the
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Northern Territory deserves an absolutely incredible, fantastic university. I think
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: it's got a good university now, but I think we
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: can really move to make in that one of Australia's
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: truly great universities.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Well, Charles Darwin University's new Vice Chancellor, Scott Bowman Io.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Great to have you in the studio this morning. Thanks
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: so much for the chat.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, really great meeting with you.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you