Plans to extend health courses at Charles Sturt University (CSU) will see the addition of new courses in nutrition and dietetics this year and the introduction of a new course in podiatry being planned for the Health Faculty.

CSU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cliff Blake said the allied health and medical courses had grown impressively in the past five years with new degrees in physiotherapy, pharmacy, speech pathology, nuclear medicine and occupational therapy all high performance areas for the University.

"The University has demonstrated a strong case in support of the ‘train and retain in regional areas’ argument, and our health and medical courses target the specialised nature of training required for professionals working in rural and regional Australia.

"Currently 82 per cent of all students in full time courses in the University’s Faculty of Health Studies are from regional and rural areas of Australia. Three of every four graduates of the Faculty obtain their first employment in non-metropolitan centres. These findings indicate the significant contribution CSU makes in the provision of health professionals in rural Australia.

"Recent Federal Government recognition of our success in this area will allow us to further develop our strength in providing staff for the health professions," Professor Blake said.

On December 23 the Federal Government announced an extra $1 million in funding to CSU in recognition of the "important work of providing highly trained health professionals in rural and regional Australia".

Charles Sturt University led Australia in providing full degree status and training for ambulance professionals and is the largest university-based training provider for the profession in the country. The University also leads with its degree training of ambulance staff in the United Kingdom and is developing programs for the Canadian paramedic profession.

This year the University extended its nursing degree to the new Dubbo Campus recording strong student application numbers for the course. Nursing also has a strong enrolment profile at CSU’s Bathurst and Wagga Wagga Campuses.

The extra $1 million in funding for health and medical courses at CSU will assist the purchase of specialised teaching resources for the degree courses.