In November, Central Queensland University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman signed a contract for another five-year term at the helm of the sprawling regional institution, but over Christmas he and his wife, Anita Bowman, changed their minds.
By August, Bowman will have been in charge of CQU for 10 years; he and Anita (who runs a department at CQU) will be in their mid-50s; and they will have lived in Australia for 20 years. Time, they thought, to buy an expedition truck and tour the world.
“We actually met on the back of a truck in the Sahara desert, and I remember on that trip we talked about plans for travel and what we were going to do with our lives,” he says. They married young, had children young, charged into their careers. Yet they didn’t forget the plans they discussed on the back of that truck.
“We thought over Christmas that it was now or never,” he says. “I think we’ve got another 10 or 15 years of health left in us.”
His decision has disappointed many of the staff and students at CQU, who had come to like and respect their no-nonsense Britain-born vice-chancellor. During his nearly 10 years at the helm of CQU, the university has grown significantly, and it now runs campuses and study centres across the nation, from Perth to Brisbane, from Sydney to Busselton.
“I really love this university, and it was very attractive to stay here another 10 years and build on what we’ve achieved over the last 10,” Bowman says. “But it’s probably time to spend more time together and maybe try and fulfil some of those dreams.”
The dreams have become reality: they now have a four-wheel-drive expedition truck, with a winch at both ends, and solar power. In May next year the Bowmans will begin their grand journey in Canada. They plan to motor through North America, down into Mexico, Central America and South America, then over to Africa, up into Europe and back to Asia. The whole journey, Bowman thinks, should take about 10 years.
Inspired by some of the volunteer work the university’s students have tackled in nations such as India, Nepal and Thailand, the Bowmans are keen to tackle similar projects on their journey. CQU students have been involved with projects in Australia and abroad, and India has been a particular focus, largely because many of the university’s international students come from India.
“As a university, we wanted to give back to the communities,” Bowman says. “Here in Mackay we’re doing lots of projects; we’ve given a building to an Aboriginal school that we work with and we do that all around Australia. But then it suddenly hit me that a lot of the wealth of this university actually comes from India.
“To me it didn’t seem a very good story that we were taking these international students’ fees from one of the poorest countries in the world to support some of the richest kids in the world. So we decided we needed to give back.”
CQU students now work with various charities in India, and the university funds about 20 scholarships in India for students who have very little.
Running a university with an emphasis on social innovation and regional education provided a level of meaning in his life, he says, and he and his wife want to continue that as much as they can while they’re on the road.
Inspired by some of the volunteer work the university’s students have tackled in nations such as India, Nepal and Thailand, the Bowmans are keen to tackle similar projects on their journey. CQU students have been involved with projects in Australia and abroad, and India has been a particular focus, largely because many of the university’s international students come from India.
“As a university, we wanted to give back to the communities,” Bowman says. “Here in Mackay we’re doing lots of projects; we’ve given a building to an Aboriginal school that we work with and we do that all around Australia. But then it suddenly hit me that a lot of the wealth of this university actually comes from India.
“To me it didn’t seem a very good story that we were taking these international students’ fees from one of the poorest countries in the world to support some of the richest kids in the world. So we decided we needed to give back.”
CQU students now work with various charities in India, and the university funds about 20 scholarships in India for students who have very little.
Running a university with an emphasis on social innovation and regional education provided a level of meaning in his life, he says, and he and his wife want to continue that as much as they can while they’re on the road.
“It might be teaching, but it might be getting our hands dirty, digging holes and doing things in communities.”
Apart from his truck plans, Bowman is an unusual vice-chancellor. He “failed quite miserably” at school, he says, and instead of heading to university, he joined a hospital-based training course to become a radiographer. Then, although he didn’t have a bachelor’s degree, he got a diploma and then got himself into a master’s degree course.
That was just the beginning. He now has a master of arts in politics and government, a master of business administration degree from the University of the Sunshine Coast, and a doctorate in clinical decision-making from the Open University in Britain.
He is proud of CQU’s achievements under his watch. CQU has about 25 “delivery sites” across Australia, and about 11 or 12 of them true campuses. The university’s main campus is in Rockhampton. Mackay, Townsville and Cairns are also enjoying sustained growth, and there are sites in Gladstone, Bundaberg and Emerald.
Elsewhere, the CQU footprint extends to Noosa, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and there is a research campus in Adelaide. In Western Australia, the university has a regional emphasis through study centres in Geraldton, Busselton, Karratha and Broome. “Yes, I have quite a few frequent-flyer points,’’ Bowman says with a surprising lack of fatigue.
The university recently has set up shop in Perth, which Bowman thinks will be a big market for international students. The Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane campuses also cater for international students, mostly from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and other campuses have cohorts of mostly Australian students.
“We’ve split the country into 13 regions, and we have an associate vice-chancellor in each region,” Bowman says.
“We try and make them the face of that region. I was here yesterday for the graduation in Mackay and they wanted someone to do media, then we always push the associate vice-chancellor rather than the vice-chancellor forward. We’re trying to make the campuses semi-autonomous.”
At one stage, more than half the CQU students were from abroad, but that has been wound back and the present proportion is 23 per cent. “During my time, we’ve actually adjusted that and the proportion of internationals has come down remarkably”, Bowman says. “A lot of that is around our growth in Australian students, but we have actually reduced the number of international students as well.”
Bowman is proud of the university’s diversity and social inclusion. As the first in his family to go to university, he understands the joy and fear that can flood such students. CQU has one of the highest proportions of students from poorer backgrounds of any university in Australia, along with a relatively high proportion of indigenous students, one of the highest proportion of students from the bush, and one of the highest proportions of “first in family” students.
“Some universities say they are great universities because they have students with ATARs of 99.9 recurring,” Bowman says. “We actually say we’re a great university because we have these people coming from non-traditional backgrounds into university.”
With the truck expedition looming, and a likely last day of work some time this year, Bowman has been thinking about the sorts of qualities his replacement should have.
“Someone who’s willing to keep that point of difference and not just try and make us a clone of every other university,” he says.
“I think there’s a big problem: universities try and push themselves in this mould. They all want to be a Group of Eight university, they all want to be Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge.”
The new VC should be a “really decent human being’’, he says. “Someone who has empathy for people, an empathy for our students and our staff. I think the uni’s been very successful in recent years and it’s because we’ve been willing to be different.”
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/bowmans-seize-their-moment-to-travel-the-world/news-story/70486eca2a74661313ea5eaa189657a5