Welcome and what this session covers

G'day, and welcome to the Choosing Your Uni National Virtual Expo. I'm your host for this session, Rob Malicki, and welcome to this session on Charles Darwin University. Before we get started I want to let you know what's coming up in the next 20 minutes. And to those of you at home watching on the live stream, thanks for joining me live. You can ask any questions in the chat, whether you're on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or on the session hub, and we'll try to get to those by the end of this session. For anything we don't get to, we do have the Choosing Your Uni Discord, as well as a Facebook group specifically for parents, so every single question that gets asked will get a personal answer.

In the next 20 minutes we're going to be talking about what Charles Darwin University is known for and who does well studying there. We're also going to hear a little bit about what it's like studying there, and we're going to get into its academic strengths. I'm also going to take you through some of the data around how the university performs on both national and international rankings scales, and I'm going to be really straight with you about what those numbers mean, and most importantly, what they mean for you, because quite often there can be a lot of hype around different rankings. So let's get to the truth of it. And finally, I'm going to take you through which universities I would actually compare Charles Darwin Uni with, if I were trying to make that decision.

I'm coming to you today from Garigal land in Sydney, and I pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land on which I live and work. Now, this whole expo has been made possible by the support of Southern Cross University, so a quick word from Southern Cross, and then we get straight into this session.

A standout graduate employment statistic

Let me give you a statistic that might surprise you. Charles Darwin University has a higher graduate employment rate than the University of New South Wales. It's higher than the University of Sydney. It's higher than the ANU. 85.9% of CDU graduates are in full-time work within four months of finishing their degree. That's from national data, and it puts Charles Darwin above three key Group of Eight universities on possibly one of the most important numbers for most students, which is: will you get a job at the end of this degree? And of course, the Group of Eight universities are the most famous, prestigious institutions in the country. I don't think a lot of people on the East Coast or elsewhere in Australia would have guessed that would be the case.

Who CDU is probably not right for

But let me save you a little bit of time, because Charles Darwin University isn't for everybody. If you are somebody chasing that absolute prestige factor, like the University of Sydney or Melbourne brand, CDU sits at 584th on the QS World University Rankings. Honestly, it's respectable for its size, but it's nowhere near the top 100 positions of the Group of Eight institutions. So if doing your degree and having that prestigious logo on your testamur is what's important to you, Charles Darwin might not be the right place.

It also might not be the place for you if you're looking for that buzzing, massive inner-city campus experience, tens of thousands of students in the heart of a city where you walk out of class and you've got laneways and coffee shops and dumpling houses sitting right there. No, that's not what you're going to get. Darwin is, of course, a capital city, but it's one of our smallest ones. The main Casuarina campus sits about 12km from the centre of the city in a lovely, leafy suburb. It's beautiful, but it's not George Street on a Saturday night. It's also probably not for you if you don't like the heat or the tropics. It's hot and humid in Darwin.

Now, of course, Darwin has multiple campuses, not only throughout the Territory but also some study centres in other parts of Australia, and diversity is a big part of the university. So if being part of a diverse community speaks to you, and living in one of the most extraordinary places in Australia, in my view, then hang about, because we've got some really great facts about this institution.

A student's experience: landing in Darwin from Sweden

Before we get there, let's take a pause and hear from a student who studied at Charles Darwin Uni.

Student: I'm from a city called Luleå. But I used to study in Gothenburg.

Rob: And how does this compare? What's it like suddenly landing in Darwin?

Student: The first thing is that it's warm. In Sweden we used to walk into a sauna, but here you walk out to the sauna.

Rob: I like that! And what's it like studying here? What kind of classes are you doing?

Student: I'm doing some social work units. The main difference I notice is, in Sweden we used to do one unit at a time, and when that's finished and we've already got a grade on that, then we begin the next one. So we have the same amount of units in one semester, but we do them successfully one at a time. Here we do everyone at the same time. So that's the major difference.

Rob: And what's the vibe like on campus? Are people pretty relaxed?

Student: Yeah, they're pretty relaxed and friendly, actually.

Three things that define CDU

Here are three things that I think define CDU. The first is that it's genuinely the university of remote, regional, and Indigenous Australia. This isn't just branding, it's the core of what Charles Darwin does. It's the only university in the Northern Territory, and it was built to serve communities that the rest of the sector, the rest of Australia, simply does not reach. You'll see that in the student mix. It's got a strong cohort of Indigenous and remote students, and dedicated support through the First Nations Student Success Team. You'll see it in the mix of subjects, things like nursing, education, social work, environmental science, and public health, and these have placements that put students directly into communities that really need them. So if making a difference in parts of Australia that are chronically underserved matters to you, almost no other institution in the country is as well positioned to do that.

Second, and this overlaps with the Indigenous side of things, is tropical and Indigenous health research. Charles Darwin's research identity is built around one standout partnership, and that's the Menzies School of Health Research. It's co-located with the Royal Darwin Hospital. Menzies is one of Australia's leading medical research institutes, and it focuses on tropical diseases, Indigenous health, and the kinds of public health challenges that we can really only study where they happen. That gives CDU health students access to a research ecosystem that's genuinely unique in Australia. So if you want to work in health in the tropics or in remote settings, or you're interested in the intersection between medicine, policy, and culturally safe practice, this university should be on your list.

Third is the dual-sector model. Charles Darwin University is one of the few universities that runs both TAFE, that's Technical and Further Education if you're not familiar with it, and university under the same roof. And that matters for practical reasons. Firstly, you can start with a certificate or diploma at the TAFE level and work your way all the way up to a degree, even to a doctorate, carrying your credits through without the friction of moving from a TAFE provider to a university. You can mix vocational and academic study. So for students who don't come through a standard ATAR pathway, ATAR of course being the ranking percentage that determines how a lot of school leavers get into uni, this pathway is genuinely flexible and valuable. And if cost is a factor, starting at TAFE, where a lot of courses are less expensive or subsidised, sometimes even free, can be a great pathway into uni because it allows you to get some credit under your belt for less cost.

A fourth reason: the Territory itself

Something just occurred to me as I was talking before. We've talked about three highlights, but there's a fourth for me, and that's just the Territory. The Territory is freaking awesome. Yes, it can be hot and humid for much of the year, but it's an adventure wonderland. There are a number of places in Australia that I think call to certain types of students. There's Tasmania if you love the outdoors and temperate environments, the mountains. Darwin to me is the same. If you love camping, fishing, the heat and humidity, the wide open spaces and the stars at night, Darwin and the Northern Territory will speak to you. It's definitely worth considering moving to for the right kind of student.

Academic structure, research strengths, and the energy sector

Now let's get into the academic side of things. CDU is organised into four higher education faculties: Arts and Society, Health, Science and Technology, and Business and Law, plus the Charles Darwin Division. Across these areas it's got 300 different programmes, everything from certificates and diplomas right up to doctorate studies, and with around 20,000 students, that's quite a lot of breadth.

Charles Darwin's international research profile rests on that flagship partnership with Menzies, which has been running since the 1980s and focuses on problems that really matter in the tropics: things like malaria, rheumatic heart disease, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, and infectious diseases in tropical environments. This is the kind of work that doesn't get done anywhere else in Australia at the same scale. CDU gives you something that most mid-sized universities don't have, and that's a claim to being genuinely world-leading in this specific research area.

But beyond health, CDU has built serious capacity in environmental and tropical sciences through the Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods, known as RIEL. This studies tropical ecosystems, biodiversity, and climate adaptation across northern Australia. This work just can't be done in Melbourne or Sydney, because you're in the ecosystem when you're in Darwin and the Territory. So if you're interested in environmental science, conservation, and the management of tropical landscapes, CDU is one of the best field classrooms in the whole world.

And then there's the energy sector, which is a really important one. CDU runs the renewable energy microgrid test facility at the Casuarina campus, a working research platform looking at how remote communities and industry sites can move off diesel and onto renewables. And hasn't this year, more than any other year, shown us how critical this is for our sovereign security and for remote and major communities around the country? Combined with the North Australia Centre for Oil and Gas, that puts Charles Darwin Uni in an unusual position. It's a smallish university sitting right in the middle of Australia's energy transition, especially for northern and remote contexts. So if you're interested in sustainability engineering for remote infrastructure, this is a place that's going to serve you really well.

Flexible delivery, the Innovative Research Universities network, and the Darwin CBD transformation

CDU is also a member of the Innovative Research Universities of Australia, a coalition of seven Australian universities with a shared focus on research, social impact, and community engagement. Being part of that network gives CDU students access to collaborations across institutions like James Cook in Townsville and Cairns, Western Sydney, and others.

On the teaching side, Charles Darwin has been built from the ground up for flexibility. A large proportion of students study online or externally. Many programmes are fully available online, with regional placements and intensive on-campus residentials where relevant. This matters because if you're in a regional area, or you're working, or relocating to Darwin isn't on the cards, the delivery model gives you real flexibility.

The other thing that's really worth flagging is the physical transformation underway in Darwin itself. CDU has been investing around $250 million into the Denali Education and Community Precinct, a new teaching and community hub in the Darwin CBD right down by the harbour. It's beautiful. It's still under construction in many ways, but by the time Year 10 and 11 students watching this get there, the university will have a significantly expanded city presence alongside that suburban Casuarina campus. There's also a new 350-bed accommodation village in the middle of the city as part of the same expansion. I really love institutions that are taking what they do into the heart of their communities. We've seen it in places like Perth, where Edith Cowan has opened a campus in the centre of the city, and in Tasmania, where campuses have moved into the hearts of Launceston and Hobart. The same is happening at Charles Darwin, and that opens up more opportunities for all sorts of different students.

Student satisfaction: understanding a below-average score

Now let's get into some of those ratings and rankings. This data comes from the national data set: the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching, the Australian Government's survey system, where they survey literally hundreds of thousands of students from across Australia, as well as thousands of graduate employers. That data can be really trusted to give you a good sense of an institution.

The first number I want to address is overall student satisfaction at Charles Darwin, which is 70.2%. We need to talk about that, because it's below the national average and among the lower student satisfaction scores in the sector. Now, part of what that reflects, and I think a large part, is about who Charles Darwin is trying to serve. They serve regional, highly remote, and diverse cohorts. These are students in far-flung places who might have unstable internet, complex personal circumstances, or no family history at all with higher education. And those students are going to be far harder to satisfy than a student studying on a manicured inner-city campus. So whilst that number is on the lower end, please take it with a grain of salt. Higher education is transformational for people. It changes lives, and that's particularly true for people living in regional and remote communities and for our First Nations people. Charles Darwin is taking that on head-first. Maybe it suffers a little on that top-line student satisfaction rating as a result, but those students are still getting lifetime benefit from their experiences.

Graduate employment, salary, and what global rankings actually measure

Now let's look at that graduate employment number again: 85.9%, nearly 86%, of students in full-time work within four months of finishing their degree, much higher than UNSW, the University of Sydney, and the ANU. It reflects Charles Darwin's strength as an institution that leads people directly into the workforce. The Northern Territory is desperate for nurses, teachers, health science graduates, engineers, and all sorts of other disciplines. So when you finish a degree at Charles Darwin Uni, there's a job pretty much waiting for you.

The median graduate salary, at $75,000, is above the national average, and substantially higher than what you'll see from much more prestigious institutions. Part of that is about the Northern Territory economy. Skilled workers are in demand and they're paid accordingly. It also reflects the fact that Charles Darwin trains people in health sciences and technical fields, careers that tend to have decent starting salaries. In both cases, if you want your degree or qualifications to lead you somewhere into work, CDU is a great offering.

If we look at the global rankings, CDU is ranked around 600th in the world on the QS rankings. On the Times Higher Education ranking it sits in the 400 to 500 range, which is equal 26th in Australia. Now, those rankings really reward massive research output. The big Group of Eight universities, churning out volumes of research, do much better on these metrics because part of it is just a volume game. Those rankings don't necessarily measure very well how you're going to get a job, how well you're going to be taught, or whether your degree is going to serve the community you actually want to work in. For me, the CDU graduate employment and salary numbers tell you more about day-to-day outcomes than those big global rankings.

Which universities to compare CDU against

If I were making the decision about where to study, I wouldn't look at Charles Darwin Uni in isolation. So let's have a look at what some of the options are.

The first is a geographical comparison. There's no other university in the Territory, so the nearest comparable institution is James Cook University, which is also in the tropics over in Queensland, with campuses in Townsville and Cairns. It shares CDU's focus on tropical health, remote communities, and Indigenous education, and it operates in that climate and cultural context that most East Coast or southern universities can't match. So if part of the appeal of Charles Darwin is the tropics and the specific kind of work that gets done in regional and remote Australia, check out the James Cook University session as well. It's genuinely the closest thing you're going to find in Australia.

The next comparison for me is a characteristic match, and that's CQUniversity, based in Rockhampton in Central Queensland. It's comparable because it's also a dual-sector university, which means TAFE and higher education under the same roof. It's also got a heavy focus on regional and remote students, extremely strong graduate employment at about 86%, and does a lot of online learning as well. CDU and CQU are like cousins: one's from the Territory and one's from Queensland, but they basically share the same mission.

I'll throw in an out-of-the-box suggestion, and that's the University of New England, which is in Armidale in the lovely New England region of New South Wales. Armidale isn't the tropics and UNE isn't a dual-sector university, but philosophically Charles Darwin and UNE have something in common, and that's distance and flexible learning. It's wired into the DNA of both institutions. They both serve students who can't or won't relocate to a capital city, and both have super strong graduate employment. UNE is a little stronger, at 89%, and CDU is at 86%, but they're both punching well above their weight on these numbers. So if Charles Darwin's remote-first, flexible-first model is what appeals to you, UNE is definitely worth a look as well.

Wrapping up

We've got sessions on all the universities as part of this National Virtual Expo. Now, I'm just about out of time. All the pre-asked questions will be answered up in the Choosing Your Uni Discord, and if you're a parent, the Choosing Your Uni Facebook group details are in the session description down below.

It's been great doing this session on Charles Darwin University, an institution that I think is really worth a look, and one of those institutions that, for the right student, should draw you there no matter where it is that you live. Have yourself a lovely evening. I'm Rob Malicki, and I'll see you throughout the National Virtual Expo. Take care.