Charles Sturt University (CSU) today released its policy document Growing Our Communities through Education and Research – CSU’s agenda for inland Australia which sets out its ambitions for developing as the national university of inland Australia.

 

The Vice-Chancellor of CSU, Professor Ian Goulter, said that this paper is intended to raise awareness of CSU’s role in CSU’s regions and identify some of the University’s priorities for areas of growth in Australia’s inland communities.

 

“CSU is firm in its belief that the people of inland Australia have a right to access a nationally recognised standard of higher education and research ‘in their own backyard’,” Professor Goulter said.

 

“We are committed to the ongoing development of University courses of relevance for the sustainable growth of inland Australia: the word ‘inland’ describes our geography, being a ‘University’ defines our mission.

 

“The document focuses on specific areas that have been identified as important by our external stakeholders – agriculture, health and student access. However, it is not a complete listing of our priorities.

 

“It is our intention to add to each of these areas over the coming months to define a clear and consistent policy position on all our priorities across the University.

“While good work has been done to build effective relationships, we have not previously sought to engage our broad communities in this sort of dialogue about the future.

 

“The release of this paper represents a different approach to engaging in advocacy for our communities and for the University.

 

“It is not a set of demands, it is a means to explore the opportunities to tackle the challenges we face.