In May we announced the commencement of our transformation program, Sustainable Futures, designed to reshape and reposition the university to ensure Charles Sturt delivers excellence.

We have been working through changes to our course profile with our staff as part of this activity. Staff have been providing feedback and we have considered the feedback carefully.

We have decided to make changes to a number of course offerings.  These changes will consolidate our course profile, making it easier for students to enrol with us. It also ensures our academic staff do not invest effort in course offerings that are not resonating with our students and communities.

Course offerings update

• We will phase out 20 course offerings with no student enrolments.
• We will phase out 28 entire courses with low student enrolments that are not viable and teach them out.
• We will revitalise 7 courses and make them more attractive to prospective students.
• We will make changes in relation to course offerings, modes or locations to 61 offerings.

Students

Any student in a course approved for changes will be able to complete their studies. Only around 4% of current students are enrolled in courses approved for changes, however we expect to retain all of our students due to being able to provide teaching out arrangements, equivalent options and the fact that many of these course offerings have few or no students enrolled.

There are a small number of prospective students that have enrolled in courses undergoing changes. These students will be contacted to discuss an alternate enrolment plan that enables them to reach their specific goals.

Overall, these changes will strengthen our financial position, meet the needs of our regional communities and deliver a better experience for our students.

The changes

Albury-Wodonga

We’re continuing to offer Nursing, Allied Health, Business, Environmental Science, Human Services and Social Work, Teaching and Education and postgraduate education in Albury.

We’ve approved to remove the on-campus offering of the Bachelor of Information Technology but we are keeping it on campus in Bathurst and available online. We’re consolidating the Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of General Studies (Science) and Bachelor of Science (Hons) to online. We’re consolidating six Bachelor of Business degrees into one new Bachelor of Business degree with specialisations.  We’ve approved to suspend the Bachelor of Speech and Language Pathology for 2021 intake, so we can review it for revitalisation. We’ve approved to no longer offer Bachelor of Outdoor Education and the Bachelor of Health and Rehabilitation Science at Albury campus and we will teach it out.

Bathurst

We’re continuing to offer psychology, nursing, cybersecurity and IT, policing, paramedicine, business, engineering, humanities, teaching and education, and communication.  We’re consolidating six Bachelor of Business degrees into one new Bachelor of Business degree with specialisations. We’re planning to consolidate Communications and Creative Industries courses into a single, new course with majors. Majors will be specialised at each campus (Wagga Wagga, Bathurst, Port Macquarie and online). This means we’ll be consolidating the Bachelor of Theatre Media and Bachelor of Creative Industries into a single communications and creative industries course with majors. We’re revitalising the Bachelor of Arts to be launched for first intake in 2021. The first year will be on campus at Bathurst and Wagga and then a blended delivery for years two and three. It’s also offered online.

Canberra

We’re shifting the on-campus Master Terrorism and Security Studies to move online.

Dubbo

We’re focusing on the School of Australian Indigenous Studies. We are still investigating the best nursing delivery model but remain committed to nursing education in Dubbo. We’re removing the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) and Bachelor of Educational Studies from Dubbo campus. We will continue to offer the Bachelor of Education (Birth to 5 Years) online, with the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) continuing at Bathurst, Albury and Wagga Wagga, and Bachelor of Educational Studies offerings continuing at Bathurst, Albury and Wagga Wagga, Port Macquarie, and online.

Orange

There’s opportunity for Orange to grow into a health hub, and we’re looking at expanding international opportunities for dentistry, as well as revitalise Pharmacy in Orange with the launch of the medical school.

We’re planning to stop offering the Sustainable Agriculture postgraduate courses. These courses have, over years, had falling numbers of students and are no longer viable. There are better opportunities to grow our commitment to sustainable agriculture through an integrated revitalisation led out of our Wagga Wagga campus.

We’re going to shift the Bachelor of Science (Hons) and Bachelor of General Studies (Science) from on campus to online.

Port Macquarie

We’ll be shifting the Bachelor of Exercise Science (Hons) to online, and we’ll no longer offer the Bachelor of Human Services (with specialisations) from the Port Macquarie campus.

Wagga Wagga

Our health offerings are very strong. We’re considering whether we can take international students in the School of Animal and Veterinary Science, Dentistry and Nursing. We’ll implement a comprehensive community, industry and research led revitalisation of our agriculture, wine and horticulture suite of courses, all of which we will continue to teach.

We’re consolidating the Communications, Theatre Media and Creative Industries courses into a single, new course with majors. Majors will be specialised at each campus (Wagga Wagga, Bathurst, Port Macquarie and online). This means we’ll be consolidating the Bachelor of Theatre Media and Bachelor of Creative Industries into a single communications and creative industries course with majors. We will continue to teach these skills. However, we cannot maintain the current proliferation of courses given the low student numbers over the past five years.

We’re revitalising the Bachelor of Arts to be launched for first intake in 2021. The first year will be on campus at Bathurst and Wagga and then a blended delivery for years two and three. It’s also offered online.

The Bachelor of Psychology and Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) are not being phased out. They will be offered online and at Bathurst and Port Macquarie campuses. Unfortunately, due to declining student enrolments over the past five years, we are not able to offer these courses at Wagga campus.

We’ll no longer offer Bachelor of Information Technology on campus at Wagga, but we will continue to offer it online and at Bathurst.

We’re consolidating offerings relating to the Bachelor of Business (Management), Bachelor of Business (Hons) and Bachelor of Computing (Hons).

We’ll no longer offer the Master of Animal Science but we’re keeping the Bachelor degree.

We’re consolidating the Bachelor of Science offerings and Bachelor of General Studies (Science) offerings to online.”