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Speaker 1: But as I said, we know that the federal government

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Speaker 1: yesterday announced that they're planning to put a cap on

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Speaker 1: the number of international student places at the Australian universities,

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Speaker 1: and they're proposing that institutions wanting to exceed their allocation

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Speaker 1: would have to build more student accommodation. And the situation

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Speaker 1: with student accommodation is something that we've spoken about quite

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Speaker 1: a bit here in the Northern Territory. But the budget

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Speaker 1: also promised to introduce paid placements for certain study areas

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Speaker 1: to address essential worker shortages. Now joining us on the

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Speaker 1: line to talk a little bit more about these changes

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Speaker 1: is Charles Dalen University's Acting Vice Chancellor, Ruben Bolt. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to Reuben. Good morning, great to have you on

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Speaker 1: the show. Professor Wat's your reaction to the cap on

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Speaker 1: the international students in relation to accommodation?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I think this is something that's not only

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Speaker 2: affected charles Dale University, that's stilt across the spector and

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Speaker 2: particularly the universities in the regional areas. What the cats

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Speaker 2: mean is that we're we're having to, you know, because

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Speaker 2: we've got in place our targets for students, but a

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Speaker 2: lot of our businas are not getting approved. So it

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Speaker 2: means that we're not able to achieve the number of

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Speaker 2: the international students that we that we want and that

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Speaker 2: we need here in the territory.

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Speaker 1: And in terms of you know, like in terms of

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Speaker 1: looking at it from that student accommodation perspective, I mean,

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Speaker 1: are their plans in place? Are there ways that we

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Speaker 1: could potentially mitigate this?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, you know, we've we've got in we're going

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Speaker 2: to be opening a brand new city campus at the

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Speaker 2: end towards the end of the year, and that's an

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Speaker 2: investment through through a NAPE loan. And we've known for

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Speaker 2: a while now that as we start to increase our

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Speaker 2: numbers in terms of international students, we have a target

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Speaker 2: of around six thousand students that we want to get to.

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Speaker 2: We know that we need the accommodation. So we've been

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Speaker 2: talking with industry. We've also been talking with government about

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Speaker 2: how we can address that and so we will continue

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Speaker 2: to do that. We know that building some accommodation is

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Speaker 2: not going to be you know, a three month endeavor.

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Speaker 2: It's going to take a while to do. So we're

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Speaker 2: continually in conversations and we really need to make sure

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Speaker 2: that we're able to do that now as.

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Speaker 1: You touched on there as well. Obviously you know the

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Speaker 1: new campus that we've got coming up in the city,

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Speaker 1: it is through any flow, and so I mean it's

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Speaker 1: something that the federal government has has helped to fund.

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Speaker 1: It seems like it seems really sort of odd to

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Speaker 1: me now that you know, while we've got the campus

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Speaker 1: that's that's just about complete, then these caps are put

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Speaker 1: in place and it's going to make things a bit

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Speaker 1: more difficult.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, but I think we need to think about

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Speaker 2: this from a broader national perspective. CDU is a relatively

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Speaker 2: small university. The math loans are relatively small loan in

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Speaker 2: the context of you know, austraining government funding and budgets,

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Speaker 2: et cetera. So we are relatively small, but the impact

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Speaker 2: on us is going to be great. So I think

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Speaker 2: what we need to do is to try to lobby

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Speaker 2: government to think about how we might be able to

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Speaker 2: have some kind of exemption or waiver or whatever it

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Speaker 2: might be. But we really need to have our members

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Speaker 2: that are advocating for that, and they're doing a great

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Speaker 2: job in that space.

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Speaker 1: Rubert I raised this yesterday with the Federal Treasurer Jim

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Speaker 1: Chalmers now he had said that there would be a

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Speaker 1: closer look at the regions. Has there been any further

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Speaker 1: discussion with Charles Dalen Uni at this point in time

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Speaker 1: are a confident that there will be.

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Speaker 2: Look, I've been in this role for about four or

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Speaker 2: five days now from acting in the role, though, I'm

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Speaker 2: not entirely sure what there's Vice Chancellor Professor Scotbohemer has

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Speaker 2: had in terms of first discussions, but I know that,

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Speaker 2: for example, we've been very well supported in terms of

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Speaker 2: our medical school, which we announced last Friday. So that's

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Speaker 2: great that we've been funded to do that, and I'm

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Speaker 2: confident the relationship that we have with government there's opportunities

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Speaker 2: to have those discussions and in a positive way.

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Speaker 1: One of the other one of the positive things that

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Speaker 1: did come out of the budget earlier in the week

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Speaker 1: is the announcement that students will some students around paid

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Speaker 1: practical placements. Do you have a better understanding at this

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Speaker 1: point who's eligible?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I mean they're talking about eligibility for placements

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Speaker 2: for four particular kind of disciplines of education, midwif fery, nursing,

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Speaker 2: social work. Those are the ones that are really important

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Speaker 2: to us here at CDU and if you look at

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Speaker 2: the number of students that we have in those disciplines,

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Speaker 2: this could potentially assist around fifty percent of our domestic

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Speaker 2: student co word, so that's a really good thing. We've

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Speaker 2: got big numbers of students, particularly in nursing. And if

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Speaker 2: you look at the number of students that are working,

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Speaker 2: for example, because a lot of our students, I think

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Speaker 2: the average age is thirty one is thirty one, So

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Speaker 2: most of our students are mature age, which means they're working.

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Speaker 2: They have families, they have to balance life, they have

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Speaker 2: to balance that we study and with their and plaid employment.

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Speaker 2: When they go on placement, if they're not supported by

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Speaker 2: their employers, then they don't get it. They won't have

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Speaker 2: any income. So even though we know that the amount

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Speaker 2: is means tested, you know it's based on app study

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Speaker 2: except as I study, you know that will still make

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Speaker 2: a contribution to their financial situation.

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Speaker 1: And do you have any idea how much they're likely

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Speaker 1: to receive.

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Speaker 2: Well, my understanding was it was around three hundred and

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Speaker 2: nineteen dollars per week, which is benchmarked with your study rates.

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Speaker 1: And you know, from a real practical sense, it sounds

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Speaker 1: like it will make a huge difference for some of

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Speaker 1: those students, but also potentially in terms of you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe having more people study in those particular areas, Like

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Speaker 1: if they're maybe in two minds about which degree to do,

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Speaker 1: it could potentially tip them over the edge to you know,

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Speaker 1: to take on one of the unique degrees where they

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Speaker 1: are going to be paid for their practical placements.

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Speaker 2: I definitely think that's that's a possibility. But there are

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Speaker 2: other disciplines which do have placements that are not included

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Speaker 2: in that, particularly around allied help yep. So there is

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Speaker 2: a little bit of a gap there. But again, you know,

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Speaker 2: these placements for students are compulsory, they need to do them.

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Speaker 2: And if any way we can better support skids, particularly financially,

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Speaker 2: that's where it's going to make a good impact on

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Speaker 2: their success rates.

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Speaker 1: Professor, anything else out of the federal budget that you

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Speaker 1: know that you think territories would be interested in when

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Speaker 1: it comes to our you know, higher education in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean, there's still quite a bit of detail

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Speaker 2: to go through. Where really excited about where we're positioned. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: we have a lot of challenges when you look at

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Speaker 2: Childs Dawn University and compare us to any other university

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Speaker 2: in the country, we're very unique. We serve us a

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Speaker 2: large area of the all of the territories. So as

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Speaker 2: a large area, we have about two hudred and fifty

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Speaker 2: thousand people in the territory. We're relative this Morning University.

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Speaker 2: We have some of the most challenging locations in terms

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Speaker 2: of remote community. So it is unique. And as we

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Speaker 2: move forward, we'll learn more about this budget and we'll

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Speaker 2: be able to do a bit more analyophus around that,

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Speaker 2: and I think this will be a good thing for

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Speaker 2: the territory.

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Speaker 1: Well, we'll keep in contact. I'll be really keen to

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Speaker 1: you know, to get an update once that further detail

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Speaker 1: comes through, and once we've sort of got a bit

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Speaker 1: further detail as well about these the caps and that

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But we really appreciate your time this morning, Professor,

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Speaker 1: Acting Vice Chancellor Ruben Bolt, good to speak with you.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Thanks so much.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Like