Charles Sturt University courses have experienced a significant upsurge in demand from applicants for full-time study in 2000.

"Demand for courses across the University's Albury, Bathurst, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga Campuses is the strongest in many years, placing the University in a healthy position for the coming year," said CSU's Student Administration Director, Geoff Honey.

According to Mr Honey, the University was particularly pleased with the strong demand for courses requiring full-time study, specifically:

• Albury-Wodonga Campus - Physiotherapy, Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Photography, Information Technology, Early Childhood Education;
• Bathurst Campus - Human Movement, Communications (particularly Public Relations and Journalism streams), Psychology;
• Dubbo Campus - Nursing, Social Welfare; and
• Wagga Wagga Campus - Pharmacy, Medical Imaging, Visual and Performing Arts, Multimedia, Nutrition & Dietetics.

Physiotherapy, Pharmacy, Medical Imaging, Human Movement and Communications continued to attract high quality applicants from throughout Australia, while most CSU courses this year attracted stronger demand and better qualified applicants from local areas and afar.

"Where possible, the University has maintained cutoff marks at levels that encourage access for local applicants to its courses," Mr Honey said.

As vacancies are still available in some courses, applicants interested in studying at CSU in 2000 should check today's (Friday 21 January) Sydney newspapers to see where vacancies exist. Prospective students can change their course preferences through the University Admissions Centre (UAC) by Tuesday 25 January, or, if they did not apply through UAC, lodge a direct application with the University.