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Speaker 1: Now Charlestown University is mensi's School of Medicine was established

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Speaker 1: at the beginning of this year, set to offer postgraduate

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Speaker 1: programs in an effort to train frontline healthcare workers right

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Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory. Currently there are territorians well,

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Speaker 1: unfortunately heading off to programs such as the Flinders Medical

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Speaker 1: School in Adelaide, taking potential workforce away, sometimes forever and

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Speaker 1: leaving our frontline deplete it. Additionally, we know that a

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Speaker 1: new aged care training center it opened at CDU's Casharina campus,

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Speaker 1: expanding the territory's locally grown frontline workforce. Now joining me

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Speaker 1: on the line right now is CDU Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Scott, Hi KB.

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Speaker 2: Lovely to have you on the show.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 1: I understand that you have recently been in Canberra advocating

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Speaker 1: for funding for training here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Tell me a little bit more about what you were

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Speaker 2: doing in Canberra.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, So I was down in the map House

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Speaker 3: talking to people, getting them, trying to get them on

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Speaker 3: side about a medical school for the NT, the NT's

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Speaker 3: own medical school, and I've got to say we've got

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Speaker 3: a very very sympathetic hearing from both sides of politics.

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Speaker 3: I think I think several politicians are starting to see,

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Speaker 3: you know, this is the right thing to do. You know,

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Speaker 3: how can you have for a territory that has no

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Speaker 3: commonwealth funded medical praiss the only one in Australia. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: it was a good trip.

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Speaker 1: So what is the status at the moment of the

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Speaker 1: of the School of Medicine, the Men's School of Medicine.

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Speaker 3: Okay, look, we just really wanted to get on and

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Speaker 3: do something. So what we've done with launched the medical school.

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Speaker 3: It's a little bit like a pub with no beer.

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Speaker 3: It hasn't got any commonwealth funded supported places to train doctors.

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Speaker 3: But what we can do in there is to train

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Speaker 3: already qualified doctors and other health care professions, so including

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Speaker 3: we're looking at the Masters of Aerial Aerial Retrieval and

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Speaker 3: obviously you know when you look at what Darwin does

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Speaker 3: in you know having that emergency international response with world

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Speaker 3: experts on that. So working with Lenda Tarists, we put

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Speaker 3: those programs into there. We're looking at short courses, so

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Speaker 3: a lot of courses for people that are already qualified,

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Speaker 3: and we're really going to ramp the number of those

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Speaker 3: up and then hopefully have our own medical students in

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Speaker 3: due court.

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Speaker 2: And so how tough is it right now?

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Speaker 1: I mean, have you been able to secure any federal

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Speaker 1: funding for these programs or what's the status of it

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Speaker 1: From that perspective.

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Speaker 3: With let's say we've secured lots of nice words and

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Speaker 3: nice statements, we haven't secured any money yet. So what

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Speaker 3: we need is the funding for forty places scoring medical

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Speaker 3: places and then going up to sixty places. Remember that

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Speaker 3: we need in the territory sixty two interns, so newly

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Speaker 3: qualified doctors every year in the territory. Yeah, the Flinders

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Speaker 3: program at the moment produces twenty five and as sorry,

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Speaker 3: twenty four and has produced them for the last ten years,

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Speaker 3: with teelve of them coming from the territory from CDU.

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Speaker 3: So that just doesn't measure up to what we need

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Speaker 3: in the territory. So we do need that funding commitment

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Speaker 3: to think. You know, hopefully we will get something leading

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Speaker 3: up to the election, but you know, we're not going

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Speaker 3: to go away because this is the right thing to do.

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Speaker 3: So hopefully those you know, fluffy statements and kind words

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Speaker 3: eventuate into something concrete.

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Speaker 1: When do you reckon, you'll know, are you waiting, like,

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Speaker 1: will it be a commitment that if it's going to happen,

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Speaker 1: it'll happen before the federal election. Oh?

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Speaker 3: Look, I would hope. So, I mean, this is our

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Speaker 3: window of opportunity where you know, it is a chance

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Speaker 3: to put forward some really good ideas. This is a

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Speaker 3: big idea for the territory. So if it was an

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Speaker 3: election commitment, that would really be great. If there were

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Speaker 3: you know, some something done in the budget, that would

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Speaker 3: be great. Also, if we have to put an argument,

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Speaker 3: we know we've got, you know, the strongest argument in

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Speaker 3: Australia for these numbers, so we're happy to do that

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 1: There Well not that on Friday it was announced that

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Speaker 1: there'd be a new training center for aged care at

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Speaker 1: the Casuarina campus. It's now complete. What does this mean

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Speaker 1: for territorians.

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Speaker 3: Well, we have got a state of the art facility

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Speaker 3: there for training age care workers. And it was really

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Speaker 3: quite interesting that you know, it's right next to our

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Speaker 3: pre school training area as well, so you've got this

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Speaker 3: area for age care, this area for young kids right

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Speaker 3: next to each other, which I think is quite nice

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Speaker 3: and showing that the university is across the agent but

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Speaker 3: obviously training people for age care is an incredibly important thing,

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Speaker 3: and you know, in partnership with the MTG, we've now

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Speaker 3: got a great facility here to dinner.

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Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, And I think that, you know, if COVID

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Speaker 1: has taught us anything, it is that those aged care

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Speaker 1: workers are so incredibly important, and the more that we

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Speaker 1: can grow our own here in the territory, you would

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Speaker 1: think the better.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly right, and that's what we're trying to do

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Speaker 3: across the board in healthcare. So you'll have seen that

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Speaker 3: we've just announced the Masters in Audiology because we have

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Speaker 3: so many people with airing problems. We've got the Masters

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Speaker 3: of Physiotherapy OT, we're now really revamping our pharmacy course,

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Speaker 3: so you know, we're ramping all of that up with

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Speaker 3: you know, from master's degrees across two certificate threes and

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Speaker 3: fourth in training.

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Speaker 1: Scott. I know that that obviously students are starting to return.

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Speaker 1: I would suspect if they're not back already. For twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two. COVID's been a big you know, it's had

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Speaker 1: a big impact on so many different ways, whether you're

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Speaker 1: talking about tourism or hospitality or health right across the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory, but no doubt it's having the unimpact as

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Speaker 1: well as those students return.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it definitely is. So what we're trying to

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Speaker 3: do with if you're like, we try to reduce the

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Speaker 3: viral load on campus, So anyone that can work at

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Speaker 3: home is working at home, but any training course, so

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Speaker 3: our vocational students back now, we're trying to run those

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Speaker 3: as normal and we've put in all sorts of procedures

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Speaker 3: to make that happen. So training is going on pretty

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Speaker 3: much unaffected. We're all gearing up for a couple of

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Speaker 3: weeks time when we have the degree students coming back

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Speaker 3: on campus, and at this point we're just saying we

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Speaker 3: are doing on campus delivery, so you know that. You know,

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Speaker 3: we did pivot to online, but this year we want

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Speaker 3: to get back on campus and do that in a

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Speaker 3: safe way. Probably the biggest impacted areas that international house,

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Speaker 3: our accommodation. We've had some of our international students and

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Speaker 3: start to go down with the disease over there, all

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Speaker 3: doing well, healthwives, but obviously causes a massive disruption.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it really does in so many different ways. And

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Speaker 1: how has it been in terms of returning some of

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Speaker 1: those international students back to the territory.

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Speaker 3: Oh look, that's gone really well. I think we're up

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Speaker 3: to getting in the round about one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 3: back actually on campus so that you can feel the

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Speaker 3: campus coming back to life. So that's gone really well.

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Speaker 3: But we've got a big expansion plan in place for international,

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Speaker 3: so overall we have about two thousand international. Really within

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Speaker 3: three years want to double that and then another two

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Speaker 3: years I want to double it again. So we really

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Speaker 3: are focused on on that.

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Speaker 1: Well, Scott, it sounds like it's going to be a

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Speaker 1: busy year for you, no doubt about it. And I

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Speaker 1: guess it always is. But it sounds as though you've

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Speaker 1: got a lot planned.

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Speaker 3: We've got so much plan and with so many you know,

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Speaker 3: I said to people, you know, some people are saying

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Speaker 3: I'm feeling a bit tired, and I said, well that's fine,

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Speaker 3: but we have got a big year. It's not a

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Speaker 3: time to be tired. We've got so many big projects.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, I think you're going to be hearing a

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Speaker 3: lot about the UNI this year.

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Speaker 1: Oh well, good stuff, Scott Bowman, the Charles Doowen University

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Speaker 1: Vice Chancellor.

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Speaker 2: It's always great to catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate your time this morning, and good to hear

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Speaker 1: what's happening out at the UNI.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, always good to talk to you. I was going

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Speaker 3: to wish you a happy New Year, and I thought, well,

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Speaker 3: maybe it's too late to do that. What's the rule

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Speaker 3: on that.

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Speaker 1: Well I was doing that on my first week back

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Speaker 1: as well, which was about two weeks ago, so it

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Speaker 1: was right at the end of January, and I felt

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Speaker 1: a bit the same. I thought, is too far gone

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Speaker 1: to be wishing people a happy new Year? Well, happy

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Speaker 1: Valentine's for you too, mat I hope you have a

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Speaker 1: lovely day and no doubt we'll talk to you again soon.

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Speaker 2: Okay, thanks Scott, see you