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Speaker 1: Now, concerns have been raised at a very tight budget

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Speaker 1: at Charles Darwin University could spell job cuts.

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Speaker 2: That's according to some media reports.

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Speaker 1: Now it's understood that Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman had told

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Speaker 1: the ABC earlier in the week about twenty to thirty

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Speaker 1: jobs could be lost as part of responsible budget management,

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Speaker 1: but he said there was no restructure or redundancy set

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Speaker 1: in stone. Now Professor Scott Bowman joins me on the

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Speaker 1: line right now. Good morning to you, Scott, Hi Kadie,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much for your time. Now talk us through

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Speaker 1: the budget. How has it become very tight?

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Speaker 3: Look for a number of reasons. As you know we've

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Speaker 3: talked about we're really pushing the university forward. We are

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Speaker 3: looking to expand into Nullanboy, we're really beating up what

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Speaker 3: we're doing in Catherine and in Alix Springs. We're extending

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Speaker 3: our programs. We're putting in all new computer systems. You know,

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Speaker 3: there's a lot of development then added on to that,

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Speaker 3: you know, like everyone else, and insurance bills, a costs

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Speaker 3: are going through, the roof, futilities are going up. We've

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Speaker 3: given people a four percent pay rise. And regional universities

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Speaker 3: they're always pretty run on a smell of an eily

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Speaker 3: rag anyway. So, yeah, things are pretty tough in terms

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Speaker 3: of finances.

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Speaker 1: And so when you take that into account, how is

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Speaker 1: the university going to manage that, you know, the fact

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Speaker 1: that things are to us.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, so we said we're going to have to

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Speaker 3: just keep an eye on our costs. I'm not going

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Speaker 3: to take the university down the road of a massive

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Speaker 3: restructure and go off and sack a hundred people or

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Speaker 3: you know, do something like that. But I said, we've

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Speaker 3: got to be careful. So when a position becomes a vacant,

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Speaker 3: we're looking at and deciding is there any way that

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Speaker 3: we can do without that position? Could that work be reallocated?

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Speaker 3: And we've been doing that since you know, this is

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Speaker 3: a new story. Really we've been doing that since April,

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Speaker 3: and we've had some success in doing that where we've said,

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Speaker 3: well this really we can do without this position, and

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Speaker 3: you know, some of the positions haven't been refilled. We've

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Speaker 3: been looking at things like our travel budget. After COVID,

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Speaker 3: our travel budget has gone you know, really blown out

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Speaker 3: a bit. So we're looking at how we can pull

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Speaker 3: back on travel. And as you know, the airfares have

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Speaker 3: just gone through the rooms we're looking at that we

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Speaker 3: are looking at. Are there any places that we can

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Speaker 3: do some efficiency cuts? Are there any places where we

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Speaker 3: have got one or two positions that really we really

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Speaker 3: they're not being used to their full advantage and can

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Speaker 3: may be used in other places or in extreme cases,

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Speaker 3: would that us and leave the university? So I think

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Speaker 3: as was recorded, you know, my own senior management group.

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Speaker 3: You know, these are the vice presidents and deputy vice chancellors.

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Speaker 3: You know, I made a decision that we could cut

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Speaker 3: that group down by one and still reallocate that work.

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Speaker 3: So we did that. But we are not looking you know,

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Speaker 3: we're not going back to the bad old days of

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Speaker 3: mass restructures and lots of redundancy.

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Speaker 1: So is there potential here that there's going to be

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Speaker 1: you know, between twenty and thirty jobs cut, as is

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Speaker 1: being reported by other media.

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Speaker 3: Look, I yeah, one of your colleagues on another place,

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Speaker 3: push me on that, and you know I would be

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Speaker 3: quite pleased. Again, we're not doing this, and we're not

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Speaker 3: looking to turn the budget round in the next couple

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Speaker 3: of months. We're looking to do it well now over

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Speaker 3: another eighteen months. When we started the process round about

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Speaker 3: you know, over the next eighteen months, we're looking yet

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Speaker 3: we want to cut down the number of positions, and

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Speaker 3: if I could save round about twenty to thirty positions,

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Speaker 3: that would be very good for the university. The majority

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Speaker 3: of that would be through natural attrition, you know, where

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Speaker 3: we couldn't where we decided we didn't want to replace.

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Speaker 3: But kay, do you know, on the flip side of

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Speaker 3: a coin, overall, probably our number of staff will go

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Speaker 3: up because our international student numbers are going through the roof,

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Speaker 3: and particularly in areas like it, So I know I'm

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Speaker 3: going to have to put on at least another six

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Speaker 3: or seven IT academics to teach in that space.

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Speaker 2: So you reckon that.

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Speaker 1: So by the sounds of it, you feel as though

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Speaker 1: there could, like over the next eighteen months there will

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Speaker 1: be sort of between twenty and thirty job cuts, But

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Speaker 1: from what you are saying, there's going to be other

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Speaker 1: jobs that will need to actually be introduced over that

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Speaker 1: period of time, for different courses and in different areas.

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Speaker 3: And that's exactly right. So I'm looking at you know,

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Speaker 3: where are these jobs really we can do without them anymore?

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Speaker 3: But you know, also knowing that I'm going to have

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Speaker 3: to put extra jobs in for the increase in students together.

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Speaker 3: So that's what we're doing. But we do you know,

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Speaker 3: a good organization and businesses always doing that. I think.

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Speaker 1: So with the jobs that are going to go over

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Speaker 1: the next eighteen months, I mean, is it going to

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Speaker 1: have an impact on different courses that are currently being

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Speaker 1: delivered or are they different support roles?

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Speaker 2: What type of jobs are you talking here?

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Speaker 3: Well, they're mainly professional and administered positions, you know, And

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Speaker 3: we're saying, well can this work? Well, first of all,

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Speaker 3: do we need to do this work? And then if

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Speaker 3: we do, can we can we look at other people

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Speaker 3: within the university doing it if there's some places where

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Speaker 3: the workloads are not a full bore. But you know,

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Speaker 3: I can tell you we've I've looked since about April.

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Speaker 3: I've looked at every position that's become vacant, from a

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Speaker 3: professor to you know, a person working on a reception

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Speaker 3: and probably eighty probably eighty five percent of the positions

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Speaker 3: we've looked at with that now we need this position

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Speaker 3: and with you know, you can see we advertise a

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Speaker 3: lot of jobs, but there's just a few, maybe fifteen

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Speaker 3: to twenty percent where we say, well, actually while things

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Speaker 3: are really tight, we can probably do without this now.

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Speaker 1: Would have an impact on students.

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Speaker 3: No, I think it's not. We've just you know, we've

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Speaker 3: just got our feedback from our surveys our students with

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Speaker 3: We're outperforming most universities in Australia in terms of student satisfaction.

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Speaker 3: Our net promoter of score from students is still very high.

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Speaker 3: We've just got our international stud student Bramins the results

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Speaker 3: literally in this week and they're showing we're getting really

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Speaker 3: good scores for student support. So we're definitely not looking

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Speaker 3: to lose anything that will impact on students. And as

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Speaker 3: I said, we are having to put more positions in

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Speaker 3: you know where the student numbers are.

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Speaker 1: Going up now, I do want to ask you as well,

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Speaker 1: while i've got you, in regards to student accommodation, how

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Speaker 1: are things going, because you know it's been quite a

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Speaker 1: concern now for a little while, or at least the

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Speaker 1: last few months. I know that you've spoken just then

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Speaker 1: about the increase in international students. You and I have

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Speaker 1: talked before about where exactly they're going to live. How

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Speaker 1: are things going in regards to student accommodation and indeed

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Speaker 1: making sure that students have safe accommodation.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look on those two things, I'm going to be

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Speaker 3: I'm quite surprising what I'm about to tell you. At

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Speaker 3: the moment, things are looking okay. We've not got We've

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Speaker 3: not got students screaming. And I literally check on a

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Speaker 3: definitely a daily if not weekly basis of our center.

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Speaker 3: We seem to students seem to have found accommodation. We

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Speaker 3: our study stays where people put online, you know, bedrooms

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Speaker 3: out in their houses or granny flats and beans. I

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Speaker 3: think that's still we had a great response from the

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Speaker 3: community on that, but there's still a few beds in there.

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Speaker 3: So there's three beds if students need that kind of bed.

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Speaker 1: And so is that because the community sort of came

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Speaker 1: forward and offered rooms to rent and that kind of

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Speaker 1: thing exactly right.

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Speaker 3: That was a big part of it. When we put

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Speaker 3: out you know, would you like to put you you know,

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Speaker 3: if you've got a spare bedroom or a granny flat

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Speaker 3: or even a whole rental property that you want to

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Speaker 3: give over the students. They Yeah, people turned out and

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Speaker 3: that's worked out really well. We've got a lot of

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Speaker 3: students now who are coming and they're staying with family

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Speaker 3: or family friends, so that's picked up a lot. I'll

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Speaker 3: be honest with you, I am worried about next year.

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Speaker 3: I think now that the developers are seeing that, you know,

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Speaker 3: we're not just talking about bringing students in, but we're

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Speaker 3: actually bringing them in and they're here, then they've got

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Speaker 3: a lot more confidence. So I can see it that

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Speaker 3: probably two to three year mark, there's going to be

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Speaker 3: student accommodation, new student accommodation being built. I'm worried about

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Speaker 3: next year because everyone's fitted into the city this year,

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Speaker 3: but whether we can rely on that next year, I'm

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Speaker 3: not sure. So we are talking with various people around

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Speaker 3: the town who do have some spare bed. We know

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Speaker 3: that there's some developers looking at converting existing buildings. They

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Speaker 3: should be able to come on stream a bit quicker.

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Speaker 3: But what we thought was going to happen this year

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Speaker 3: is really not eventuated.

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Speaker 2: Well that is good to hear, professor.

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Speaker 1: Before I let you go, we did get contacted by

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Speaker 1: somebody yesterday saying that they're a nursing student and they're

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Speaker 1: having to do their practicals interstate in Queensland because the

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Speaker 1: hospital is not able to.

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Speaker 2: Take them here in the northern territory at.

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Speaker 1: The moment, is that the case is that what's happening

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Speaker 1: with some of our nursing students in the territory.

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Speaker 3: Look, I haven't heard that if they were a territory student.

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Speaker 3: I'm surprised that they're having to do placements into state.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we do use into state placements because we

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Speaker 3: literally have nurse in placements right across sorry nursing students

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Speaker 3: across the country. I mean, if they get in touch

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Speaker 3: with me or get in touch with nursing sometimes, you know,

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Speaker 3: we offer placements and the students can't do them for

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Speaker 3: whatever reason at that time, and our only option is

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Speaker 3: to give them another option. But that's news to me,

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Speaker 3: So get in touch with the news on that is.

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Speaker 3: We had a massive backlog of places to find and

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Speaker 3: we've cleared them all now. So we took our nurse

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Speaker 3: in intake down to only one hundred for this year.

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Speaker 3: We'd be putting our nurse in a number of nursing

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Speaker 3: students up next year because we've cleared the backlog of placements.

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Speaker 3: But offering an MT student and interstate one, that's yeah,

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Speaker 3: I don't know anything about it.

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Speaker 1: We'll see what we can find out and pass on

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Speaker 1: those details if needed, Professor Scott Biman, we are going

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Speaker 1: to have to leave it there. Always appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: Thanks very much for having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 3: Good talking to us always.

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Speaker 2: Thank you