Charles Sturt University (CSU) Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Indigenous Education Professor Jeannie Herbert has spoken of the need to empower Indigenous students to participate as equal citizens in their own country.

Professor Herbert, the foundation Chair of Indigenous Studies at CSU and previously Vice-Chancellor of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, was appointed as CSU's first Pro-Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Education earlier this year.

She said the position and others like it in the sector were critical for raising awareness in the academic and wider educational communities of the complex issues surrounding Indigenous education.

"It's vital that people understand the complexity of the issues we are dealing with as we strive to deliver educational programs which provide Indigenous students opportunities to empower themselves by engaging in their own education," Professor Herbert said.

"We are trying to provide these students with opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to take control of their own lives and participate as equal citizens in their own country."

Professor Herbert said her first priority in the new role was to consult Indigenous communities in and around CSU's campus towns, as well as communities in more remote locations.

"The focus of the initial consultations in each location will be the importance of education, and ultimately higher education, as a tool of empowerment," she said.

"My aim is to make Charles Sturt University the preferred university site for Wiradjuri and other Aboriginal groups throughout regional New South Wales."

CSU Deputy-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Garry Marchant said Professor Herbert's appointment underlined the University's commitment, outlined in the University Strategy 2013-15, to "improve educational outcomes and lives for Indigenous, regional, rural and remote Australians".

"It stresses how important we think it is to deliver on our plans for indigenous education," he said.

"We want to significantly increase the number of Indigenous students coming into the University and graduating. Beyond that, we want to ensure all our students graduate with a level of cultural competency that better prepares them to work with Indigenous people and communities so they can help advance the position of all Indigenous Australians."

The University's strategic priorities for Indigenous education are to:

• implement cultural competency training for all staff;
• ensure all undergraduate programs incorporate Indigenous Australian content; and,
• maintain national leadership in this area.

A 2012 analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistic's Census data showed a notable increase in the number of Indigenous students in Australian tertiary institutions between 2006 and 2011 (from 7 057 students to 10 128 students). However, while Indigenous people made up 2.5 per cent of the Australian population only 1.09 per cent of university students were Indigenous. In 2012 CSU had 685 Indigenous students, or 1.8 per cent of all enrolments, which was a 15.5 per cent increase on 2011 enrolments (n = 593).