Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia will inspect the Wagga Wagga Campus of Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Thursday 12 October. He will be accompanied by a large delegation from Cambodia, a country in Southeast Asia with a population of more than 13 million. Head of the University’s Wagga Wagga Campus Professor David Green says the Prime Minister is visiting Wagga Wagga as part of his official visit to Australia. “The Cambodian Prime Minister expressed an interest in seeing Australian agricultural facilities, hence the visit to our Campus.” Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter said “it is very clear that our model of collaboration with government agencies and with industry, as demonstrated with the E H Graham Centre and the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre, is a model for other countries to use.”  The Cambodian delegation will be briefed on current collaborations between the NSW Department of Primary Industry and Cambodian research institutions before a luncheon hosted by CSU. Professor Deirdre Lemerle, Director of the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, a joint research venture between CSU and the NSW Department of Primary Industries, says the visit is a “tremendous opportunity to showcase our excellent research capacity in agriculture, and further develop our collaborative links with Cambodia to create profitable and sustainable agricultural systems.”

• The Cambodian delegation arrives at the CSU Convention Centre at 10.00am Thursday 12 October
• CSU Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Lyn Gorman and Professor Deirdre Lemerle, Director of the E H Graham Centre will be available for interview from 11.30 am at the CSU Convention Centre.
• A briefing on Agricultural research commences at 10.35 am at the Convention Centre.

 A Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer with a passion for providing support and guidance to first year students studying via distance education has been named the winner of the Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award for 2005. Dr Mir Rabiul Islam, from the School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies on the University's Bathurst Campus, is course coordinator of the largest undergraduate psychology course, Bachelor of Social Science – Psychology. Including Education/Psychology double degrees, he is coordinating courses for over 450 students. In his online teaching, he strives passionately to use “online strategies” that empower students to be self-sufficient and adaptive to the ever changing needs of life. Student evaluations of his teaching of research methods are extraordinarily high, no mean feat in the area of Advanced Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology unit, a course often regarded as difficult and complex. He considers learning from students as a unique opportunity to assess and re-assess his own professional integrity. Each year the University recognises and encourages excellence in teaching through the presentation of this award. The award will be presented to Dr Islam in May at the Faculty of Arts graduation ceremony.

A number of Pacific Island countries met for three days from Tuesday 17 January to establish partnerships to help preserve their rich history. Charles Sturt University (CSU) historian and cultural heritage manager Associate Professor Dirk Spennemann chaired the meeting, which was opened by the President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, The Hon Kesai Note, in the nation's capital Majuro. The meeting gathered local and expatriate historical researchers and heritage managers to share ideas and encourage collaboration across the Pacific Islands region. Majuro, like much of the central and northern Pacific region, was the scene of a bloody battle between Japanese and US forces during World War II and has many historic relics from that period.