WHAT A TIME TO BE A STUDENT AT CDU!
According to our newest Prime Minister, there’s never been a better time to be Australian. The world is ripe with opportunity for the agile and the innovative.
Arguably, that is even more the case here in Darwin, at one of Australia’s smallest, youngest, most research-intensive, and hopefully most agile and innovative universities.
Yes we are remote, but only from the rest of Australia. I prefer to think of Darwin, not as a quirky northern outpost on a vast empty continent, but as a polyglot southern knowledge hub for the most dynamic economic region in the world. We sit at the intersection of two great arcs — the tropics, and the arc from the Indonesian archipelago up through Singapore, Hong Kong and Indochina to China, Korea and Japan.
Of course we are physically in Australia, and that provides extraordinary advantages. We are incredibly lucky that our mother tongue happens to be the dominant language of global commerce, science, education, politics and popular culture, and is likely to remain so for a few decades yet. We live in a part of Australia that is relatively intact ecologically (although far from pristine), relatively underdeveloped and, as a consequence, still has Indigenous communities with unbroken connection to their country and tens of thousands of years of history and lore. That extraordinary natural and cultural heritage is under intense pressure from the direct and indirect impacts of development (past, current and potential). Much could be lost within our lifetimes if we are not careful.
The knowledge that society needs in order to design, implement and govern the development trajectories of this dynamic region will best be generated here, ideally by people based here and hopefully trained here. This is a long game, requiring local knowledge, institutional memory, and trusting, durable relationships with stakeholders in industry, government and civil society. All of these are very difficult to create and sustain on a FIFO basis.
So what has all this got to do with being a CDU student?
From a mercenary perspective, it means job opportunities, and good ones. In many professions, a posting to Darwin or the NT is seen as a ‘career accelerator’ whereby junior professionals with initiative and ambition can gain experience, responsibility and seniority much faster than down south. The sheer distinctiveness of northern Australia and its multi-faceted challenges mean that professionals up here often have to work their way through problems that are unknown or extremely rare elsewhere.
‘If you can do well up here, you can do well anywhere’ seems to be the assumption. I think there’s more than a grain of truth in that. Many employers in the NT public, private and community sectors want contact with CDU students. We could no doubt do a better job facilitating that, but so can students. Which brings me to resourcefulness, resilience and the ability to operate in challenging, resource-poor environments. Those characteristics may not be innate to CDU graduates, but are highly likely for enterprising students who take advantage of the Territory’s unique opportunities.
Our small scale means easier access to lecturers, researchers and supervisors – use it! Along with the ANU (itself an outlier), we are the most research-intensive university in Australia. Students at CDU have more opportunities to get involved with research projects as volunteers, and to get out into the amazing landscapes and communities of northern and central Australia.
As I alluded to earlier, the flipside of our remoteness from Carlton or Newtown is our proximity to south-east Asia. CDU students (especially in Law, Science and Environment) have amazing options to study in Indonesia in particular and to develop lasting contacts and networks in the region. Our growing international student body, a large proportion of whom are on campus, likewise offers all CDU students the chance for enriching friendships and transformative experiences.
The fact that CDU is ahead of the curve with online learning (for the time being at least) means that CDU students are relatively well-positioned for lifelong learning in new delivery modes that better complement work and family life.
There are of course downsides. The ‘permanent weekend’ feel of the campus, empty of students (domestic students especially) much of the time, with limited student engagement in campus intellectual life and a modest range of extracurricular activities, is a shock for people expecting a vibrant ‘normal’ campus. The lack of buzz is an on-going disappointment for many.
What to do? Be more revolting! Roll up your sleeves and get involved. Milk the CDU experience for all it’s worth. Show that you’re prepared to be proactive, rather than waiting for solutions to be delivered from above.
We have a new Vice Chancellor leading the development of a new strategy to 2025. Take the initiative in suggesting ways to enliven and enrich the CDU campus from a student perspective, and you may be surprised at the support you attract.
Andrew Campbell is the Director of the Research School for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL) at CDU.
