00:00There are conversations going on at the moment between Corrections and the University with
00:07a view to the University providing through its TAFE program training for low risk prisoners
00:15and possibly on the Catherine campus. The idea being that the people will come in who
00:21do not have any skills at all and largely have problems with getting employment. We
00:28as a University can provide them with skills and then ultimately when they go back into
00:34the real world they have skills which will enable them to get employment and perhaps
00:39avoid re-offending. We really do need to be looking at not just warehousing people but rehabilitating
00:45them and this is perhaps a good way we can do it.
00:49How do you walk that line as a University to make sure that you're still able to be maintaining
00:54ethical standards and I guess ensuring what you're talking about there with rehabilitation?
00:58I think that's all about leadership. We've got a very fine leadership team at the University
01:04and my understanding is their relationship with Corrections is very strong and I'm sure
01:10Corrections is aware of the same issues and there won't be any treading over lines so I'm
01:16very confident.
01:17With this partnership it is unusual. Should we expect to see more partnerships like this
01:23between Corrections and the University?
01:26Between the University and many organisations I'd like to think. One of the ways forward of
01:31course is with partnerships and we have partnerships all around Australia, particularly in research
01:37of course. But as we speak there are people in Timor-Leste who are looking at developing a partnership
01:45with the Timor-Leste people to encourage them to take TAFE courses in aged care. We're already
01:52in there doing that but expanding it.
01:55We've spoken a lot in the media around the CAP on international students and how that's
02:00impacted Charles Darwin University. How is it looking going forward with those kinds of
02:05partnerships attracting international students?
02:07It's still a very big issue. People coming into the Northern Territory to study, it's just vital
02:12to keeping our university going. You've got to appreciate that we're a population of 250,000,
02:20I think somewhere around there. To be able to offer the range of courses that we offer,
02:27including the TAFE courses and the higher education courses, you have to have a population
02:34base. And we've got some 20,000 students. When you think about that, 250,000 people total
02:40population, 20,000 students. We couldn't survive if we didn't have all those interstate and international
02:47students. And so it's very, very important to us and to the Territory that we have them.
02:53And that means we can offer the wide range of subjects and courses that we do.
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