CDU is a member of the group of seven Innovative Research Universities in Australia, and offers academic degrees as well as vocational education.

By the time of the formation of the Northern Territory University, it gave degrees in arts, education, business and applied science.

The college was governed by a council, chaired by Austin Asche and led by a warden, Professor Jim Thomson, from the University of Queensland.

During its life, the college delivered senior secondary, TAFE and higher education through its main campus in Alice Springs, and to a lesser extent the whole Northern Territory.

During his term of office the various study centres on the territory, that previously had been run directly by the NT Government, became part of the university.

The environment of having to provide as wide as possible a tertiary education to a small population living in a very large area far from alternative institutions became even more hostile and the university did not prosper.

[citation needed][19][20] CDU is a member of the group of seven Innovative Research Universities in Australia,[31] It has close links with Flinders University in South Australia, which itself has many students from the Northern Territory, including joint management of the Centre for Remote Health in Alice Springs and the Northern Territory Medical Program which is located on campus at Casuarina CDU.

[49] The Australian Government's QILT[b] conducts national surveys documenting the student life cycle from enrolment through to employment.

[50] These surveys place more emphasis on criteria such as student experience, graduate outcomes and employer satisfaction[50] than perceived reputation, research output and citation counts.

Held annually at the Casuarina campus amphitheatre, and open to the public, the lecture now forms part of the Gurindji Freedom Day Festival events.

Past lectures have been given by William Deane, Gough Whitlam, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Patrick Dodson, Malcolm Fraser, and Marcia Langton.

[55] Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, the 2020 lecture was jointly presented in an online format by Pat Dodson, Marcia Langton and Bruce Pascoe.

[55] In 2022, Torres Strait Islander man Thomas Mayo,[c] advocate for the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, delivered the oration.

These student groups offer academic, career and professional support to their members, as well as organizing social events throughout the year.

The station is broadcast on 104.1 Darwin and Palmerston and 98.7 Alice Springs and can also be heard in Batchelor, Katherine / Tindal, Tennant Creek, Nhulunbuy and Adelaide River.