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Speaker 1: Now we do know that Charles Darwin University has been

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Speaker 1: awarded more than eight hundred university places to tackle skill

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Speaker 1: shortages and give more people from under representative well underrepresented,

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Speaker 1: I should say backgrounds are the chance to go to

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Speaker 1: university in the Northern Territory. So the Federal Minister of Education,

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Speaker 1: Jason Clare announced this yesterday, saying that twenty thousand additional

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Speaker 1: places would be allocated for students who are underrepresented at

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Speaker 1: Australian universities, including those from poorer backgrounds, Indigenous Aussies and

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Speaker 1: students from rural and remote Australia. Now joining me on

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Speaker 1: the line to tell us a little bit more about

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Speaker 1: how this is actually going to be implemented and how

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Speaker 1: it's going to work is Charles Darwin University's Vice Chancellor

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Speaker 1: Scott Bowman. Good morning to you, Scott, Hi KB, good

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Speaker 1: to have you on the show now, Scott, this seems

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Speaker 1: like a great announcement, more than eight hundred additional places.

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Speaker 1: What areas of study will we see these numbers increased in.

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Speaker 2: They're kind of right across the board, but the key

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Speaker 2: areas where the big numbers are are in things like nursing,

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Speaker 2: teacher education, engineering, really all the areas we've got skill shortages,

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Speaker 2: we've got extra places, and so it's really good news.

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Speaker 1: And so how exactly is it going to roll out?

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Speaker 1: Because I think that was the big question that we

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Speaker 1: sort of all left yesterday wondering what it all meantor

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Speaker 1: how it's going to roll out.

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Speaker 2: Well, really, in some ways it's business as usual. So

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Speaker 2: what we will be doing is carrying on recruiting. But

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Speaker 2: we've got an extra eight hundred and fifty places that

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Speaker 2: we can recruit to. A lot of our students in

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Speaker 2: the NT come from those background backgrounds, were all remote,

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Speaker 2: first in family, low socio economic and indigenous students, so

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Speaker 2: it gives them great opportunities. So yeah, I guess that's sound.

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Speaker 2: We're going to roll it out.

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Speaker 1: Will the students not have to pay fees or how

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Speaker 1: exactly does it work?

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Speaker 2: Yes? Now, I saw a headline and another media around

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Speaker 2: that said three places. In fact, that's not correct, so

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Speaker 2: the students will still have to pay hecks. Now, they

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Speaker 2: like all of the students, they won't have to pay

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Speaker 2: that up front, so it's free the point of delivery,

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Speaker 2: but when their salary gets to a certain point then

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Speaker 2: they have to pay that hex back. But what it

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Speaker 2: means is that there's getting on for an extra thousand

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Speaker 2: places that we can open up and taint more people.

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Speaker 2: Because at the moment the universe is capped, the government

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Speaker 2: says you can take there's many places and we will

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Speaker 2: fund you to that many places. But now that that.

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Speaker 1: Has gone up, yeah, right, so I reckon that's what

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Speaker 1: people like. A lot of people will probably be a

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Speaker 1: bit surprised or you know, not too sure you know

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Speaker 1: what that all means, because I think that a lot

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Speaker 1: of people yesterday thought that it would mean that students

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Speaker 1: were actually getting you free university fees.

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Speaker 2: What the government said it will pay the government loading

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Speaker 2: on those places. So in the past, students have applied

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Speaker 2: and we have said, look, we're really sorry. You're a

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Speaker 2: great person, but we just haven't got a place for you,

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Speaker 2: and you know, we're full up. Try again next year.

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Speaker 2: Now we can say to more students, well, actually no,

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Speaker 2: we do have a place. You can come and join

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Speaker 2: us and do the degree that you want to do.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and so how like who's going to be eligible

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Speaker 1: or how will you work through those eligibility requirements?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, in fact, just about everyone's eligible because we've

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Speaker 2: still got all the thousands of places below that eight

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty, So we are definitely looking and we

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Speaker 2: will be going out and strongly looking for indigenous students

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Speaker 2: lost socio economic first and time, and we will be

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Speaker 2: targeted in them. But even if you don't fit in

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Speaker 2: one of those groups, you can probably get one of

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Speaker 2: the places sit in below those. So go through the

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Speaker 2: normal applications, give it a go and you are much

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Speaker 2: more likely to get a place next year and the

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Speaker 2: following year because of those extra places.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And so do the extra places sort of

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Speaker 1: require additional staff or infrastructure or anything like that. Out

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Speaker 1: at Charles Dale.

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Speaker 2: UNI look not as much infrastructure, but we are definitely

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Speaker 2: as our numbers go up, then we do put more

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Speaker 2: staff on and that's linked with the income to the

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Speaker 2: university because also at the same time we look in

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Speaker 2: to have a dramatic increase in the number of international

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Speaker 2: students and of course you do need extra people to

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Speaker 2: deliver that education. In terms of facilities, we're pretty and

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Speaker 2: with our new campus coming up in the city then

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Speaker 2: you know we've got those facilities coming online as well.

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Speaker 1: And so what what means for the Northern territory do

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Speaker 1: you think Scott when it comes to the workforce issues

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Speaker 1: that we are saying. I mean, I know that we

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Speaker 1: all talk a lot about growing our own, but university

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Speaker 1: degrees do take a number of years. So I've no

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Speaker 1: doubt that in the future it will have a big impact.

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Speaker 1: But what do you reckon it's going to mean when

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Speaker 1: it comes to those to those workforce issues that we've got.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think it will help. I mean, as you know,

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Speaker 2: we are probably bigger problems than any other state or

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Speaker 2: territory because we've just got this explosion of projects and

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Speaker 2: the economy is just going great guns. So you know,

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Speaker 2: we do Facebook challenges. This is definitely a help along

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Speaker 2: with bringing in more international students. So yeah, it's going

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Speaker 2: to help. It's not going to solve all the problems,

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Speaker 2: you know. I think that was recognized by the federal government. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: because we did better than just about any other university

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Speaker 2: in this allocation.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you must have been pretty chafed when you'd seen

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Speaker 1: that we were getting more places in most other locations.

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Speaker 1: Why were we such a focus?

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Speaker 2: Look, because I think we put in a very strong

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Speaker 2: application and we did really emphasize that this was really

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Speaker 2: needed in the territory. You know, as you've heard me

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Speaker 2: say before, for the whole of Australia, the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: is so important. We're important for food security, water security,

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Speaker 2: defense security, energy security, you name it. This is where

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Speaker 2: it's happening. If you want, if you want Australia to succeed,

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Speaker 2: the territory's got to succeed and you do that by

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Speaker 2: education and training, and so we put that very strongly.

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Speaker 2: We demonstrated we also had a very strong track record

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Speaker 2: working with equity groups. We have one of the highest

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Speaker 2: purpose of Indigenous students and first in family. So it

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Speaker 2: was a pretty good application for the places.

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Speaker 1: So how soon do you reckon that they're going to

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Speaker 1: be able to start studying? Will it be at the

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Speaker 1: beginning of next year?

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Speaker 2: Beginning and next year? So this is a two year program,

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Speaker 2: So we're taking students in at the beginning of next

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Speaker 2: year and the following year onto the program. And then

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Speaker 2: obviously if you start in twenty four and you're doing

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Speaker 2: a four year degree, then you know that will go

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Speaker 2: on for another four years. So this will have an

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Speaker 2: impact potentially for six years, but it is only for

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Speaker 2: a two intakes. Yep.

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

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Speaker 1: good thing. Hey, while I've got you though, how is

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Speaker 1: you mentioned it just before? How is the construction of

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Speaker 1: that new campus going? It does seem as though it's

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Speaker 1: really sort of taking off.

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Speaker 2: It's really coming out of the ground now, isn't that?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I know it's kind of sat in the hole for

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Speaker 2: a long time. So a lot of difficult construction in

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Speaker 2: the underground levels, the car part lads, and the first

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Speaker 2: two floors. I'm told that's where all the really difficult

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Speaker 2: engineering was. We're now through that stage, so you should

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Speaker 2: see it now go up really quickly. We're hoping that

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Speaker 2: we will top out that building in March, yep, February

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Speaker 2: March time, and then that gives us a year to

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Speaker 2: fit it out and we're still aiming to get students

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Speaker 2: in it for term one twenty four. So look, I'm

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Speaker 2: going to say the builders have done an incredible job.

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Speaker 2: With all the shortages of staff and materials, they've kept

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Speaker 2: it on track. The actual builders and themselves. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you know, we're down in that whole weather, no wind

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Speaker 2: or anything in right through the wet season, through the humidity.

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Speaker 2: I take the house to them. Incredible workers appear in Darwin.

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Speaker 1: Well, good stuff. I think I drive past her a

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Speaker 1: couple of days ago and thought, oh, all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: you can this building like it's quite tall after driving

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Speaker 1: past here and you know, seeing action but not being

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Speaker 1: able to see a huge amount. So hopefully everything runs

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Speaker 1: on time and we'll get those students in there as

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Speaker 1: quickly as possible.

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Speaker 2: Oh look and yeah, and we've just had a team

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Speaker 2: come back from India and Nepal Bangladesh and it's really positive.

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Speaker 2: I think our applications a term one next year from

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Speaker 2: International Europe over two hundred percent. So hopefully we're going

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Speaker 2: to bring lots of new people to the territory who

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Speaker 2: again will help fill some of those labor shortages.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Scott Bowman, it is always great to catch

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Speaker 1: up with you. Thank you so very much for your

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Speaker 1: time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Great talking to you as always.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,