Statement from Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor John Germov

Charles Sturt University is transforming our delivery, driven by our University Strategy, from now through to 2022.

The Strategy sets an ambitious agenda for the University, designed to position us for growth in a competitive higher education market by investing in three areas: our students, our communities and our internal capability.

One part of this overall strategy is to review and refresh our identity, our communication and our voice as a University.

This includes investigating changing the name of the University. The preferred option is Sturt University and we are in the process of seeking feedback from students, staff, alumni and the community. We are listening to feedback with great interest and we will continue to consult before final decisions are made.

This refresh is not simply about changing a name or a logo. It is about ensuring we articulate clearly who we are and what we stand for to our students and the wider community.

It is about ensuring we modernise our visual identity so that we stand out in a crowded tertiary environment.

It is one part of a broader strategy to continually improve our courses, our student experience, our community engagement, our communication, and our support services.

Some of the initiatives we are undertaking in 2019 include:

Courses

*We are delivering a new set of courses based on the needs of our community and our future workforce.

*We are implementing a new look and feel to our online subject delivery – 120 subjects will be updated this year and continue to be led by experts in the field with one-on-one support throughout the year.

Student services

*We are going to centralise our student communication to ensure students get the information they need, when they need it.

*Support staff will be more visible in both the online and on-campus experience with a central welcome point for all enquiries.

*We are establishing 24/7 support to some of our key service areas such as Information Technology.

*We have appointed a new Director, Student Safety and Wellbeing, to ensure a more inclusive and safe space for our students.

*We have been engaging more with our local schools regarding the skills needed to be successful in the future.

Like all strategic initiatives, refreshing our identity does come at a cost – one that is budgeted and prepared for as part of the University's larger strategic program.

Our University Strategy has a budget of $24 million allocated across all strategic initiatives, from 2018 through to 2022, with a proportion of this dedicated to the brand refresh.

The University Strategy 2022 funding does not include funding to student services through business as usual budgets or Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) funding, which is specifically targeted to people from low SES backgrounds.

We are planning to make a final decision in February 2019 – a decision that will be driven by feedback from the CSU community.