A visiting international expert on the transition of children from preschool to formal schooling will discuss the effects on children of starting school in a seminar to be hosted today, Wednesday 7 April by Charles Sturt University (CSU). Professor Inge Johansson from the University of Stockholm in Sweden will speak on Transition from preschool to school: some experiences from Sweden and future challenges at the seminar to be held at the CSU Murray School of Education in Albury-Wodonga. “In Sweden, nearly all children go to preschool before they start school up to the age of six years, moving from one state of familiar surroundings to new experiences, from one educational culture to another,” Professor Johansson said. “How does this affect the children and their forming of identity? What is the role of parents and teachers in the transition? What can we learn from research in this field and what are the challenges for the future?” Event organiser Professor Bob Perry said Professor Johansson’s visit highlights the importance the Murray School of Education places on bringing international expertise to regional Australia.

Culcairn senior AFL coach and Charles Sturt University (CSU) graduate Mr Luke Donnan has joined the University’s School of Community Health as a lecturer. The 2007 graduate from the CSU podiatry course has returned to Albury after working for two years in a Wagga practice. “It is great to be back in Albury in a teaching position having already been a student here. I have also completed a degree in human movement in Melbourne, so I think this fits nicely with podiatry, especially in high impact sports such as AFL. There are plenty of aches and pains in the district after a weekend of winter sport, and CSU has established a special clinic combining expertise in podiatry and physiotherapy to tend to these pains and strains.” Prior to leaving Albury, Mr Donnan was a clinical educator in the CSU Allied Health Clinic, which runs public clinics with podiatry and other allied health students supervised by qualified professional staff.

Nearly 50 prizes will be presented to Charles Sturt University (CSU) graduates and current students in the Faculty of Business to recognise their academic excellence in 2009. Prizewinners will receive a variety of prizes including scholarships, books and funds from donors such as the Albury Freemasons, the Certified Practising Accountants of Australia, Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Australian Tax Office. During the ceremony Acting Dean of the CSU Faculty of Business, , Professor Ken Dillon, will recognise 28 students and graduates with Dean’s List awards for their exceptional academic performances. The ceremony will start at 10am on Thursday 22 April in the Faculty of Business building on CSU’s Thurgoona site.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will celebrate its close relations with the Wiradjuri people when a flag raising ceremony is held on the Thurgoona site of CSU in Albury-Wodonga on Friday 19 February. Representatives from CSU and the Wiradjuri Council of Elders will be welcomed by local Wiradjuri person, Pastor Darren Wighton in a traditional “Welcome to Country”, said Wiradjuri elder and Koori academic at CSU, Yalmambirra. Head of CSU at Albury-Wodonga, Professor Allan Curtis said Wiradjuri elders provide advice about cultural heritage management on the University’s Thurgoona site. “Activities like the flag raising ceremony reflect CSU’s wider commitment to engage Indigenous people in the University’s teaching and research in areas such as nursing, teaching and natural resource management,” Professor Curtis said. The event will commence at 9.30am in front of the Learning Commons building on the University’s Thurgoona site, with the flag raising ceremony at 10am. Students will return to CSU campuses on Monday 22 February for Orientation Week.

Excellence in academic endeavour in the sciences will be celebrated at Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Thursday afternoon in Albury. Dean of the University’s Faculty of Science, Professor Nick Klomp, will present awards and prizes to current students and graduates as well as staff at a ceremony starting at 2.30pm. The Dean’s Awards for academic excellence, staff recognition awards and other student prizes will be presented to recipients based in Albury-Wodonga in the Schools of Community Health, Environmental Sciences, and Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health. The ceremony will be held in the Nowik Auditorium, Guinea St, Albury.

An Indigenous literary academic and leading writer will explain the vital role of literacy in Indigenous self-determination at the next annual Bob Meyenn Annual Education Lecture, to be held this Thursday 22 April at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Hosted by the University’s Murray School of Education, in Albury-Wodonga, the lecture will be presented by Indigenous Literacy Ambassador, Dr Anita Heiss, who will discuss the key ingredient missing in the education system which could easily ensure a fair and equitable life experience for her people. Dr Heiss is from the Wiradjuri nation of central NSW, born and bred in Sydney. She is an author, poet, social commentator, travel writer and satirist and has published non-fiction, historical fiction, children’s fiction and so-called ‘chicklit’. Dr Heiss will present the third Bob Meyenn Annual Education Lecture titled ‘Indigenous literacy: the key to self-determination’ at 7.30pm in the Nowik Auditorium, Guinea Street, Albury.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will recognise academic excellence among its graduating students with pomp and ceremony in Albury on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 April. Students will graduate from courses in such diverse areas as accounting, nursing, teaching, physiotherapy, environmental science, speech pathology, information technology, podiatry, leisure and health, marketing and occupational therapy in three ceremonies. Highlighting the growing importance of research on the Albury-Wodonga Campus, this year 10 Doctors of Philosophy will be awarded to researchers from the Faculties of Science and Education. The three ceremonies, which are due to be attended by up to 730 graduates with their families and friends, will commence at 10.30am on 22 April at the Albury Entertainment Centre, Swift Street, Albury, and continue on 23 April.

Students in NSW and the ACT will have the opportunity to win cash prizes and donate money their favourite charity when entries open for Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) 2010 Making a Difference competition. CSU’s Making a Difference (MaD) Social Justice Innovation Award is open to all students in NSW and ACT in Year 10, 11 or 12 at high school or a student aged 15 to 21 years at TAFE. “The competition gives young people the opportunity to have an input into the challenging issues such as homelessness, teen suicide, drugs, poverty and crime,” said competition coordinator Mr Bill Anscombe, a senior lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU. “This competition offers young people the platform to tell their story.” Students were asked to write a story, poem or script that addresses any issue of social justice for the chance to win $250 cash and to select a charity of their choice which CSU would then make a $250 donation to on their behalf.

A leading climate change researcher with Charles Sturt University (CSU) believes delaying the emissions trading scheme (ETS) will cost every Australian in the long run. Professor Kevin Parton, a lead researcher with CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society, said the Federal government’s decision to delay the introduction of the scheme until after 2012 to wait and see what the rest of the world will do on carbon emissions was no reason to delay. “The three biggest polluters are USA, China and Europe. China is developing green technologies, and Europe already has an ETS. They are going to be way ahead of Australia,” Professor Parton said. “The media has greatly exaggerated the cost of an ETS to the public, leading to falling public support for the scheme. And the government doesn’t want to take the scheme to its first election.” Professor Parton said under ‘business as usual’ without an ETS, Australia can expect to double its average level of income by 2050. “But with the ETS this income doubling would be delayed only one year.”