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Speaker 1: There are some pretty big changes set to come into

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Speaker 1: place at Charles Darwin University.

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Speaker 2: Well that's what's being reported.

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Speaker 1: Seventy seven employees could be looking as though they'll lose

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Speaker 1: their jobs under a proposed restructure to get the budget

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Speaker 1: under control. Now, the university is seeking feedback on a

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Speaker 1: draft change proposal to unify vocational education and training as

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Speaker 1: well as higher education across the university. Joining me in

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Speaker 1: the studio right now to talk further about the changes

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Speaker 1: is Charles Darwin University's Deputy Vice Chancellor Meredith Parry.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Meredith.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time. Firstly, why does this

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Speaker 1: restructure need to happen.

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Speaker 3: We need to unify that and hire ed to repair

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Speaker 3: our budget. So last year our budget was a nine

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Speaker 3: million dollar loss and we need to repair that. That's

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Speaker 3: under council instruction. So we're working hard to do that

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Speaker 3: and have been working hard over the last couple of years.

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Speaker 2: What is that loss attributed to?

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Speaker 1: I mean, is it a situation here where the way

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Speaker 1: of the world and the way that people study is changing.

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Speaker 3: I think there's certainly a number of factors and as

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Speaker 3: I said, We've been working very hard over the last

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Speaker 3: couple of years to repair our budget and one of

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Speaker 3: the things that we did earlier this year was commissioned

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Speaker 3: to independent reports. Both those reports to look at our

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Speaker 3: vet operations. Both of them actually stated that our vet

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Speaker 3: operations are unsustainable financially unsustainable. So that's a combination of

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Speaker 3: the population decreasing in the Northern Territory that we're all experiencing,

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Speaker 3: funding decreasing. So we know that we need to do

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Speaker 3: something now to repair that budget and that loss that

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Speaker 3: we've been sustaining over the last few years since twenty

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Speaker 3: twelve Merit.

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Speaker 1: It's a big question on everybody's lip is how many

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Speaker 1: jobs will be lost.

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Speaker 3: At the moment, Katie and I realized this is a

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Speaker 3: really really difficult time for staff and difficult time for

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Speaker 3: their colleagues and families. We're looking about seventy seven jobs

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Speaker 3: that could potentially be no longer required and this will

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Speaker 3: be part of the consultation that you mentioned earlier, So

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Speaker 3: we're looking for staff to give us feedback around that proposal.

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Speaker 2: And what areas would those jobs be lost from.

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Speaker 3: Is it the vet sector, predominantly the vet sector, It

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Speaker 3: is vet and high red as you bring two together,

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Speaker 3: there are duplication across both, so there will be some

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Speaker 3: impact on staff currently working in High RED but predominantly

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Speaker 3: in the VET sector.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and I know that there are going to be

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Speaker 1: some quite big changes with different courses.

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Speaker 2: Can you talk us through some of those changes?

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Speaker 3: Yes, certainly, Katie. Out of one hundred and ninety nine

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Speaker 3: courses I've got, we're looking at nineteen courses not being

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Speaker 3: offered next year for new enrollments. So that means that

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Speaker 3: anyone currently enrolled will complete their course, we see to you.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So if there are students at the moment enrolled

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Speaker 1: in any of those courses, they will actually be able

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Speaker 1: to complete those absolutely.

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Speaker 3: And can I just say out of those nineteen eight

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Speaker 3: have no enrollments currently and have not had enrollments for

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Speaker 3: some time.

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Speaker 2: Is that right?

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Speaker 1: Which areas or which courses don't have enrollments at the moment.

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Speaker 3: We have a number of courses just off the top

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Speaker 3: of my head. There's Certificate four in hairdressing has no

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Speaker 3: enrollments and that's because students do their apprenticeship at a

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Speaker 3: Certificate three level. Okay, so we are still offering that.

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Speaker 3: We offer that to not only girls, in the territory.

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Speaker 3: I think it was mentioned that girls in the territory

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Speaker 3: looking forward to doing hairdressing like to shout out there

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Speaker 3: to all of the men in the territory that do

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Speaker 3: the hair dressing too, and they'll still be able to

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Speaker 3: do that with us now.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's I suppose one of the things that's

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Speaker 1: been highlighted is the likes of hairdressing.

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Speaker 2: And also business administration.

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Speaker 1: I know even some of those areas of air conditioning

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Speaker 1: technology will no longer be offered at Charles Dalwin University anymore.

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Speaker 1: But can people or will people still be able to

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Speaker 1: study those things if they do want to through the

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Speaker 1: private sector or in other ways, or does it mean

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Speaker 1: that in the territory now you simply will not be

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Speaker 1: able to do those courses.

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Speaker 3: No, that's certainly not the case. And if I pick

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Speaker 3: up on air conditioning, we have no enrollments in that

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Speaker 3: course and have not had enrollments in that course for

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Speaker 3: some time. In the Business administration, it's a duplication of

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Speaker 3: other courses that we offer in business. So simply streamlining

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Speaker 3: the courses we have and updating the courses that we

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Speaker 3: have so certainly students will be able to study business

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Speaker 3: with US. It's a growing area and we encourage students

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Speaker 3: to do so.

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Speaker 1: A situation where, you know, with the likes of air conditioning,

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Speaker 1: which which one would assume is quite a you know,

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Speaker 1: a trade that's in high demand, I would suspect in

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Speaker 1: a hot place like the territory, Why is it a.

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Speaker 2: Situation where there's nobody enrolled in that course?

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Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Kate, I don't know that I can answer

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Speaker 3: that one for you. I don't know why students tis

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Speaker 3: not to do that.

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Speaker 1: But it's not that they're studying somewhere else to do that,

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Speaker 1: or the course at CDUs may be less attractive to.

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Speaker 3: Them, I would say looking at the numbers, there certainly

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Speaker 3: hasn't been enrollments for some time. So either there are

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Speaker 3: on the job training or there are other opportunities.

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Speaker 2: Yep.

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Speaker 1: Now what's going to happen now with some of those

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Speaker 1: courses you mentioned before that the students that are currently

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Speaker 1: enrolled in them, they'll be able to finish those I

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Speaker 1: know that there's somewhere there aren't students enrolled, but in

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Speaker 1: the ones where there are, they'll be able to finish

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Speaker 1: those courses.

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Speaker 3: Certainly. So we have a number of students that will

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Speaker 3: complete by the end of this year.

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Speaker 2: Yep.

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Speaker 3: Any student that's still requires next year to finish their course,

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Speaker 3: we will certainly complete those courses, so they will students

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Speaker 3: who are currently enrolled will complete with the qualification medis.

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Speaker 1: There's lots of people already getting in contact with us

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Speaker 1: this morning on the text line and asking the question,

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Speaker 1: if the university has to make these changes and there's

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Speaker 1: jobs being lost, how on earth can they still afford

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Speaker 1: to build the new city campus.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for that question. It's one that comes

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Speaker 3: up often. So the money available from the city deal

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Speaker 3: is only available for infrastructure in the city and we

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Speaker 3: were very very lucky, I think the Northern Territory was

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Speaker 3: very very lucky to win a city deal. So the

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Speaker 3: government grant can only be used for infrastructure in the city.

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Speaker 3: We have a NAFE loan, so the Northern Australian Infrastructure

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Speaker 3: funding to build the rest of the campus. That's a

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Speaker 3: very low interest or no interest for some period loans.

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Speaker 3: So we have time to actually repair our budget before

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Speaker 3: we have to start making repayments on that.

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Speaker 1: And so what's going to happen with the old CDU

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Speaker 1: in the Northern suburbs.

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Speaker 3: Our Casuarina campus is alive and well, and certainly there's

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Speaker 3: a lot of history in there and a lot of investment.

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Speaker 3: We have our trades there where, we have our health

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Speaker 3: precinct there, and we need to strengthen that. Some of

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Speaker 3: the infrastructure is very, very old, and I think if

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Speaker 3: anybody walked around they could see that some of the

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Speaker 3: buildings need replacing. Through the Napeloan, we've been able to

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Speaker 3: secure some funds to do some work on our Casherinea campus.

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Speaker 3: So certainly we're really looking at strengthening that campus, and

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Speaker 3: we'd really love to look at industry participation on that campus.

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Speaker 1: And so how will CDU be able to manage financing

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Speaker 1: both of those campus.

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Speaker 2: It's moving forwards.

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Speaker 3: So again with the city deal, this is a one

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Speaker 3: off and it provides us with the opportunity to build

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Speaker 3: fit for purpose facilities that will attract international students and

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Speaker 3: domestic students. I think that's really important. There's been a

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Speaker 3: lot of focus on are we're doing this just for

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Speaker 3: international students? Now, we want to give our Northern Territory

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Speaker 3: students the best experience they can have in a state

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Speaker 3: of the art teaching and learning facility.

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Speaker 1: I mean is it a situation here though, where money,

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Speaker 1: more money is able to be made for the UNI

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Speaker 1: through international students than what there is through local studying,

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Speaker 1: and so they are a focus.

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Speaker 3: I'll go back to the reason why VET changes are happening. Yes,

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Speaker 3: our numbers have dropped. The numbers of people in the

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Speaker 3: territory have dropped, and that has had a flow on effect.

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Speaker 3: In High Reed. Over seventy percent of our students are online.

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Speaker 3: We just don't have the number in the territory to

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Speaker 3: service a university, so we are reliant on that government policy.

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Speaker 3: At the end of twenty seventeen meant we were capped

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Speaker 3: for the amount of domestic students. So whilst we would

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Speaker 3: love to be offering more to gymestic students, that has

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Speaker 3: been capped and we have to work within those caps.

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Speaker 3: So international students are an area for growth. It allows

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Speaker 3: us to provide great teaching and learning and research opportunities

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Speaker 3: for international students, but also then it allows us to

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Speaker 3: provide that for our domestic students as well.

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Speaker 1: No doubt the COVID situation that we're all in is

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Speaker 1: having an impact when it comes to those international students

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Speaker 1: being able to study.

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Speaker 2: How hard is that making it look.

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Speaker 3: I think it's making it very very hard. I think

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Speaker 3: it's making it very hard for a lot of other universities.

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Speaker 3: Were probably in a fortunate position where we didn't have

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Speaker 3: as large a percentage of international students as some of

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Speaker 3: the Southern universities. And we're also fortunate that some of

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Speaker 3: our returning students actually made it into Australia before the

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Speaker 3: COVID restrictions. But no doubt it has had a large

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Speaker 3: impact and will continue to have an impact because it's

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Speaker 3: not just year one, it'll be year two and three

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Speaker 3: where we don't receive the pipeline. So we're working really

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Speaker 3: hard with our international students to provide online opportunities for

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Speaker 3: them and certainly, as you know, to try and get

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Speaker 3: some of our international students back into Australia.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 1: Ce TOU Deputy Vice Chancellor Meredith Parry, we really appreciate your.

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Speaker 2: Time this morning. Thank you so much for coming in.

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Speaker 3: Thank you Katie,