Lessons learnt
DEBT- FREE and celebrating 25 years in providing higher education for Central and North Queenslanders, CQUniversity continues to expand.
Its yearly statement for 2017 shows the Rockhampton campuses still attract the most students compared to CQU’s other 24 campuses and centres, including Townsville.
Not only was CQU debtfree at the end of 2017, it was operating at a $ 21.5 million surplus.
However, the report said Vocational Education and Training revenue continued to decline in 2017 as the Central Queensland VET market experienced a downturn.
Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman said any good university aimed to run with a surplus like the one CQU had at the end of 2017, especially one with a $ 500 million turnover.
He said it was a far cry from where CQU was seven to eight years ago, operating at a deficit of $ 10- 20 million.
“We worked really hard to turn that around,” he said.
Prof Bowman said, when he started at CQU about 10 years ago, the university was “doing it tough” and brought in its Continual Renewal and Improvement Plan.
“Over the next 10 years, CQUniversity will ‘ Dare to be Different’, through a new strategic approach from 2018,” he said.
“We will dare to be different, drawing on our values of engagement and social innovation, leadership, and being a can- do, open, transparent and inclusive organisation to drive positive change.”
He said, when the univer- sity merged with the TAFE in 2014, there was a downturn in the mining sector which resulted in fewer VET stu- dents and less revenue.
“I think we are starting to see some signs of recovery this year,” he said.