Over 4 000 friends and family members are expected to attend the graduation of nearly 2 000 students at six graduation ceremonies at Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Wednesday 6, Thursday 7 and Friday 8 May. All ceremonies will be at the CD Blake Auditorium at the Bathurst Campus on Panorama Ave.

 

Starting at 10.30am: Faculty of Business - School of Accounting and Computer Science, and the School of Marketing and Management

Starting at 2.30pm: Faculty of Science - School of Nursing and Midwifery, and the School of Biomedical Sciences

 

Starting at 10.30am: Faculty of Education – School of Teacher Education

Starting at 2.30pm: Faculty of Education – School of Human Movement Studies, and School of Teacher Education 

Starting at 10.30am: Faculty of Arts – School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies, and the Faculty of Business – School of Accounting and Computer Science, and the School of Marketing and Management

Starting at 2.30pm: Faculty of Arts – School of Communication

 

The Occasional Address will be delivered at each graduation ceremony:

6 May 10.30am - Professor Robert Coombes, Emeritus Professor (for distinguished service in academic leadership and to the discipline of accounting)

6 May 2.30pm - Mr Greg Rochford, Chief Executive of the NSW Ambulance Service

7 May 10.30am - Mr Peter Harvey, School Education Director, Western NSW Region, Department of Education

7 May 2.30pm – Associate Professor Michael Gard, CSU School of Human Movement Studies

8 May 10.30am – Ms Molly Harriss Olsen, World Environment Consultants

8 May 2.30pm - Associate Professor Jane Mills, CSU School of Communication

 

Stories of interest at the ceremonies include:

 

Honours for top speech researcher (Thursday morning)

Mrs Erin Holliday will graduate on Thursday 7 May with a Bachelor of Education (Primary) awarded with First Class Honours for her thesis, which received a High Distinction, based on her research that aimed to ‘listen’ to speech-impaired children drawing about talking. As part of a comprehensive speech and language assessment, 59 four to five-year-old children who were identified with speech impairment were asked to draw themselves talking to someone. Significantly, children with speech impairment are often excluded from having a say in their lives due to society’s over-reliance on verbal communication. The research was undertaken as part of an ARC Discovery Grant, and Mrs Holliday will soon present the findings of her study at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Adelaide (17-21 May).

 

A family of five CSU graduates (Thursday morning)

When teacher Mr Chris Doyle graduates with a double degree from the CSU School of Human Movement Studies and the School of Teacher Education on Thursday 7 May, he joins his sister Mrs Angela Duncan who graduates (in absentia) with a Bachelor of Complementary Medicine on Wednesday 6 May to complete their family of CSU graduates. Their sister Kym and their parents Michael and Robyn Doyle have previously graduated from CSU and its precursor institution Mitchell College of Advanced Education.

 

Achievement in face of adversity (Friday morning)

CSU student Ms Nicole Sugden has struggled with adversity to graduate with a Bachelor of Psychology with First Class Honours from the School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies on Thursday 7 May. Ms Sugden is a quadriplegic who now intends to continue to study for a PhD.

 

PhD for study of refugees’ view of Australia’s immigration message (Friday morning)

The study by Dr Roslyn Richardson undertaken for her PhD at the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies at Bathurst, found that far from sending a ‘strong message’ to refugees, policies such as the Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) and immigration detention are interpreted in ways unexpected by policy makers. It is the first study to examine how refugees interpret Australia’s immigration policy deterrence messages, and it shows that because the Australian Government cannot control how its policies and messages are understood and interpreted, they are open to interpretation in a variety of ways, and the use of measures which have been shown to harm refugees are not guaranteed deterrents.

 

Doctorate for football research (Friday afternoon)