Charles Darwin University has posted an $18.13 million deficit following a 182 per cent decrease in revenues last financial year, with the university’s boss downplaying concerns and claiming it was due to “investment costs”.

The significant drop in profits has sparked worries about employment stability at the sole university in the Northern Territory.

Vice-Chancellor and president of CDU, Scott Bowman, said there would be no job cuts even though the university might face another deficit this financial year amid struggling enrolment numbers.

He also did not mention taking a cut to his own pay, which is well over $600,000 a year.

“The university is not in any dire straits. We’re not bankrupt or anything; we’ll hold our nerve because the people that will bring us out of this are our people,” Mr Bowman told the NT News.

He said the deficit mainly resulted from CDU’s “year of investment.”

Last year, CDU employees received an eight per cent hike in salary, facilities underwent upgrades and expansion, and significant funds were allocated to enhancing IT, HR, finance, and student management systems, Mr Bowman said.

The decrease in overall student enrolment, including a 2.3 per cent decline across various faculties such as health, contributed to the deficit.

Mr Bowman said that the reduction in the faculty’s population was partly due to intentionally limiting the number of nursing students. While typically around 800 students would enroll in nursing courses each year, the number was limited to 150.

“We came out of COVID with a big backlog of placements – students couldn’t get placements during COVID.”

“We had a lot of students that more or less finished their course, but they just couldn’t practice as nurses because they hadn’t done their placements in hospitals. So we decided last year to cut the number of nurses coming to the university.”

He said CDU’s “student population” only grew by 63 pupils from 2022 to 2023.

Mr Bowman claimed he was optimistic about the potential for increased international student numbers, which he expected to be higher this year. However, the small increase in international numbers last financial year was counteracted by declining domestic enrolments.

The number of international students attending CDU saw a significant increase, reportedly increasing by 77.9 per cent in 2023, while domestic enrolments dropped by 13.4 per cent.

Mr Bowman emphasised the urgency of rebuilding student numbers, stating that it would be vital to getting out of the red.

“It helps right across the board – it helps us to do the things we want to do and to be honest, it helps us do things that will cause us to lose money. We need to go into remote communities, but delivering there is expensive,” he said.

“We must run courses in Katherine, Alice Springs, Nhulunbuy, and Tennant Creek. It all costs money, and… Because these are thin markets, you only generate a few students, so they’ll always lose money.”

The university reported a $22.25 million surplus in 2022