One of Australia's most experienced news journalists will take a leading role in media research at Charles Sturt University with the appointment of Paul Kelly as the University's Foundation Professor of Journalism.

Currently international editor of The Australian, Mr Kelly has spent most of the past 25 years as a political correspondent and media commentator on politics and is widely regarded as Australia's most authoritative analyst of national politics.

Paul Kelly will share his experience and knowledge with a young captive audience of future journalists as guest speaker at the Faculty of Arts graduation ceremony at CSU's Bathurst Campus, Friday 14 April.

Kelly's career began in politics working for the Prime Minister's Department in Canberra before moving into journalism in the 1970's. He was the chief political correspondent with The Australian from 1974-75, The National Times 1976-78 and the Sydney Morning Herald 1981-84. He then took on the position as national affairs editor for The Australian between 1985-91.

Political analyst turned author, Kelly has covered some of Australia's most controversial political stories in four successful books; The Unmaking of Gough, 1976, (which later became the highly regarded television series The Dismissal); The Hawke Ascendancy 1984; the End of Certainty, 1992, on the politics and economics of Australia in the 1980's; and November 1975.

He has written widely on international affairs in the United States, Europe and Asia covering interviews with world leaders including Margaret Thatcher, Lee Kuan Yew, Madeleine Albright and Tony Blair.

He is a member of the Australia-Indonesia Institute Board, a director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and has been a delegate at several conventions hosted by the Federation Centenary.