Malaysia's Deputy Minister of Education will be a special guest at the graduation of more than 250 students from Charles Sturt University (CSU), Australia's largest distance education provider, in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday 12 March.

The Honourable Dato Abdul Aziz bin Shamsuddin will join more than 40 representatives from universities and other institutions in Australia, United Kingdom, Europe, the United States of America, India, Singapore and Malaysia at the ceremony.

The second graduation ceremony conducted by the HELP Institute (the Higher Education Learning Program) in Malaysia marks the continuing development of the relationship between the Institute and CSU in the provision of higher education in Asia.

This is the largest number of CSU graduates through the HELP program and will include undergraduate and postgraduate students from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and China receiving degrees in the areas of business and information technology. The ceremony will be held at the Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, commencing at 2 pm.

The CSU Chancellor, Mr David Asimus, will give the occasional address. Other CSU visitors will include the Vice-Chancellor, Professor C D Blake, and the new Director of the University's International Office, Mr David Hatherly.

International student enrolments at Charles Sturt University are on the increase with a growing number of courses delivered to students in their home countries. The University works closely with industry, the professions and governments to provide courses which meet the needs of employers, and its use of new communication technologies brings higher education closer to thousands of its students.

The Executive Director of CSU's Division of Marketing and Communications, Mr Ken Ball, has praised the cooperative agreement between CSU and the HELP.

"With the move towards lifelong learning in today's workplace there is tremendous value in our affiliation with HELP, whereby students can gain CSU degrees while living and working in their home countries," he said.