Having worked diligently to ensure Year 12 students had access to the best possible resources, the Charles Sturt University (CSU) NSW HSC Online website  team has taken time out to congratulate students who worked hard to receive notable results in their NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) last week. "While creating this website, the NSW Department of Education and Training and Charles Sturt University were keenly aware of the crucial information this website delivers to students studying for the HSC," said NSW HSC Online coordinator and CSU senior lecturer Dr Deb Clarke. "It’s wonderful to know our resources helped students gain the marks they wanted in the HSC.” The NSW HSC Online developers are now reviewing the site to ensure the next group of students studying for the HSC can access quality education resources for 50 HSC subjects in 2010. “Each month the website delivered up to 1.65 million pages to students, teachers and parents and we believe this will increase in 2010.”

About 20 Indigenous school students will assess their opportunities to undertake university study when they visit Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Albury-Wodonga on Wednesday 9 December. Staff from the Murray School of Education will discuss the opportunities for tertiary studies with students from primary and high schools in Albury as part of a CSU project titled From School to CSU for Indigenous Students: Challenges, Barriers and Initiatives. Visit coordinator Professor Bob Perry said CSU was looking at the challenges and barriers for Indigenous high school students who might aspire to continue their education at CSU. “We then want to use this information to look at joint initiatives by Charles Sturt University and local high schools to increase the numbers of Indigenous students who continue their education. We want to increase the awareness and aspirations of high school students who would not normally consider university study,” Professor Perry said.

The CSU Media team welcomes you to 2010. We hope you had a safe and enjoyable holiday season, and that the year ahead is a healthy one.

Governments across Australia have spent billions of dollars on programs to encourage rural landholders to implement sustainable farming and biodiversity conservation practices, but has this money been well spent? Drawing on his research in south eastern Australia, Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic Professor Allan Curtis will address this question when he speaks at the Fenner Conference on the Environment in Canberra on Wednesday 11 March. Professor Curtis will highlight the reality that most conservation work undertaken by private landholders is not funded by governments and that government investment in conservation programs, particularly those that invest in building and engaging human and social capital in rural communities, makes a difference. “The ‘business as usual’ approaches to engaging rural landholders are unlikely to work in the future given the remarkable change occurring as a large proportion of longer-term owners leave the land,” he said.

Fourteen visitors from Indonesia touring Victoria and Tasmania to bring closer understanding between Muslims and Christians will meet with members of the Border community at Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Tuesday 3 March. Hosted by the Uniting Church in Australia, the group particularly aims to increase mutual understanding and cultural appreciation between the Muslim majority of Indonesia and Australia’s Christian communities. While in Albury, the group will visit the University’s facilities and speak with CSU students at Thurgoona. “The University hopes the visit will enhance understanding and relations between the faiths and our cultures,” said visit coordinator and CSU student counsellor Mr Geoff Simmons. The visit will include a public forum hosted by CSU Professor The Rev. James Haire from the University’s School of Theology in Canberra.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is mourning the death of one of its founding fathers, Mr Peter Hastie, who passed away on Tuesday 29 January at Eltham Lodge in Victoria at the age of 79. Mr Hastie was appointed on 16 October 1969 as Chairman of the Interim Council of the Riverina College of Advanced Education (RCAE), and then as Chairman of the Council until 30 June 1982. At the time, he was the longest serving Chairman of the governing body of an institute of higher education in New South Wales. Under his Chairmanship, RCAE grew from a small single-purpose institution, with fewer than 450 students, to the ninth largest College of Advanced Education in Australia. Mr Hastie was also a driving force behind the relocation of the former Wagga Teachers’ College to land adjoining the Wagga Agricultural College. The CSU Boorooma site stands as direct evidence of Mr Hastie’s vision, energy and insight. The Peter Hastie Ovals, located at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus, were named in his honour on 21 October 1992. A funeral service for Mr Peter Hastie will be held at the Le Pine Chapel at Eltham, Victoria, on Monday 4 February commencing at 12 noon. Mr Hastie is survived by daughters Janet Twigden, Fiona Cropley and son Warwick Hastie.

With a significant percentage of stroke victims left with speech and language impairments, Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) speech pathology course is training a new generation of therapists to ensure that the focus is always on getting people back to the activities that are important to them. Lecturer at CSU’s School of Community Health, Ms Libby Clark, believes that rehabilitation after stroke is something that should not stop at the hospital door. “It needs to reach right back to the community level to support people who have strokes to get back into the everyday activities that give their lives meaning,” she says. “The CSU program strongly emphasises the social aspects of health to students. This teaches them to think beyond what the person can’t do, and to think about what the person can do, and what everyday activities are important to the person. Our students get very practical, hands-on experience during the four year course, with a real emphasis on working in partnership with the client and their families.”

An ageing workforce and difficulties in attracting and retaining young professionals are seen as the most important concerns for the future of Border businesses, according to a group of leading businesspeople and Charles Sturt University (CSU) academics. Drawn from leading Border businesses and the University’s School of Business and Information Technology (SBIT), the group identified in-house graduate placement programs among the main ways of attracting and retaining young professionals in local businesses. Head of SBIT, Associate Professor John Atkinson, believes one solution to the skills shortage is to develop a stronger professional community, which could be facilitated by developing closer links between the community and CSU. “The group identified areas such as offering more work internships to CSU students, mentoring and guest lectures as ways the community could offer its services to the University, while the School can provide research expertise and findings, target employment skills in courses, and provide forums for topical community issues.” The group will meet again later in the year to further strengthen the linkages between the School and the Border community.

Services for women with cervical cancer who live in rural Australia could be improved as a result of a study to be carried out by a Charles Sturt University (CSU) psychology student. Ms Melissa Elleray, a fourth year Honours student at the School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies, hopes her study of rural women who have had cervical cancer will provide insight into their experiences so that services and funding can be better targeted. “There seems to be little support for or awareness about how rural women experience cervical cancer, and as I have experienced a risk of developing the disease myself, I want to help these women have their stories heard. My research will explore what it was like going through treatment while trying to maintain a normal life,” Ms Elleray said. The research requires confidential face-to-face interviews with up to 12 women in rural NSW and Victoria before the end of 2008. Women interested in participating in the research can contact Ms Elleray on 0409 808 598.