On World Heart Day, Sunday 28 September, health researchers from Charles Sturt University (CSU) are calling for more university-based health clinics in rural areas based on research recently conducted in rural south-eastern NSW and north-eastern Victoria. The research has discovered diabetes complications, such as cardiovascular disease, contribute to morbidity and mortality even before diabetes has been diagnosed. CSU diabetes expert Dr Herbert Jelinek is part of a research team investigating how diabetes associated with atherosclerosis, a disease affecting arterial blood vessels, affects the autonomic nervous system and leads to disturbed heart rhythms. “Hypertension is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and is estimated to cause 4.5 per cent of current global disease burden,” Dr Jelinek says. “Early identification of those with higher risk of autonomic nervous system dysfunction, can reduce casualties of severe cardiovascular disease.”

Two Charles Sturt University (CSU) business students will take their university education to China in 2009 after each won a $5 000 scholarship allowing them to study at a Chinese university for one semester. Wodonga’s Mr Brenton Olsen and Mr Cobie Butler from Albury are currently enrolled in international business management degrees with CSU’s School of Business and Information Technology, based at Thurgoona. Both have been selected for their academic records and their representative skills to attend a Chinese university in partnership with CSU. While there, the students will undertake intensive training in Business Chinese that will be credited to their CSU degree in international business management. Mr Olsen said, “The chance to learn Mandarin and to have an understanding of Chinese culture, society and business practices will be invaluable in my future career.” Previous participants in the program have returned to China after completing their degrees, including Mr Angus Coghlan from Gerogery who is currently based in Shanghai in a management position with a global logistics firm. Both students leave for China in February 2009.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) education student and future teacher Ms Rebekah Salvaire was on a holiday with a difference when she travelled recently to Korea as part of her studies with the University’s Murray School of Education. With assistance from CSU, the final year student realised her goal to visit and work in Korea, while learning more about herself. “I learnt so much about my own culture by being removed from it. It made me realise how much my culture impacts on who I am. I am now studying subjects back here in Australia that requires me to reflect on the privileges of my culture and identity. My overseas experience has shaped and grown me – it was not just a holiday." CSU education lecturer Ms Sharon Milsome led the group of eight students to South Korea for four weeks, which included a teaching practicum in an international school. “We were completely immersed in Korean culture with lectures on its history, language, economy and business, cuisine and culture.” Twelve students will gain further international experience in October when they travel to the Pacific Island country of Vanuatu to teach for one week in local primary schools.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) researcher who is investigating the long term sustainability of the iconic Murray crayfish in NSW and Victoria will present a talk at the Wonga Wetlands on the Murray River near Albury on Friday 3 October. Ms Sylvia Zukowski will speak about the habitat, diet, location and possible reasons for the declining population of the crayfish. The second largest fresh water crayfish in the world (after the Tasmanian crayfish), it lives in the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers and their tributaries, but is no longer found downstream from Mildura. Sylvia is completing a PhD on the ecological and social impacts of fresh water fishing regulations on Murray crayfish, through CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society and is supervised by well known aquatic scientist Associate Professor Robyn Watts and social researcher Professor Allan Curtis.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer in Teacher Education, Mr Bob Dengate, wishes regional NSW students well in the looming HSC exams, but suggests that there is much more involved than luck. “It’s all about preparation. HSC students have spent the past two years preparing for these exams in one way or another,” he said. “The students who will do best are those who have a balanced life, yet have done the extra work, using value-added resources such as study groups and online services.” The CSU Director of NSW HSC Online, Mr Dengate has been involved in the recent introduction of study tips on the CSU website link. “This is a great way for students to help students. There are plenty of useful tips already and we invite students to also add their favourite tips and to visit the Study & Exams part of NSW HSC Online”. Developed in collaboration with the NSW Department of Education and Training, the website link provides access to quality educational resources for rural and regional students.

Indigenous staff from Charles Sturt University (CSU) will consider issues regarding Indigenous education and employment in the institution at a meeting in Albury on Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 October. Director of the CSU Centre of Indigenous Studies and Head of CSU at Dubbo, Mr Gary Shipp, will open the meeting with Pastor Darren Wighton, who will also welcome visitors to Wiradjuri country. On Wednesday evening during the conference dinner, the participants will hear from Chair of the National Indigenous Higher Education Council, Mr Gary Thomas, who will speak on Indigenous education in Australia and overseas. Coordinator of CSU’s Indigenous Employment Strategy, Ms Karen Kime, said CSU has already ready reached its 2007 target of two per cent of all CSU staff being Indigenous people, and it aims to reach three per cent by 2011.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is lending its expertise to a recruitment campaign with a difference. Instead of targeting prospective students, this campaign is targeting pet dogs. In partnership with the Sydney Animal Behavioural Service and the company HomeoPet, CSU is recruiting 150 dogs from across Australia to participate in research into the treatment of anxious animals. The study will examine the effect on dogs of the homeopathic remedy known as Anxiety. “We would like to hear from anyone who has a pet dog which reacts to thunderstorms,” said Dr Jacqui Ley from the Sydney Animal Behavioural Service. “The anxiety may be demonstrated in behaviour ranging from destructive activities to simply barking at a storm.” “Through its veterinary science program, CSU will be supporting the research by analysis of the data,” said Head of the CSU School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences, Professor Kym Abbott.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) allied health students will meet with employers in the health sector in Albury on Thursday 16 October to consider their futures. Potential employers have been invited by CSU to promote positions and careers to the final year students before they finish their degrees. This year’s annual CSU Job Market, now in its sixth year, will have an international flavour as a group of health employer representatives from Singapore will also attend the market. The expo will include prospective employers for speech pathologists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. “There is always a buzz in the room at this expo. As they face the end of their courses, the students are considering their options and this expo brings many of these options under one roof,” said Dr Megan Smith, physiotherapy course coordinator at CSU. Research shows that between 2002 and 2007, up to 60 per cent of graduates from CSU started their careers in regional, rural and remote Australia.

Some of the most mysterious and interesting creatures in the Murray River floodplain - tadpoles and frogs - will be the subject of a field night with Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Dr Skye Wassens near Albury as part of national Water Week. A researcher at CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society, Dr Wassens will present a 30-minute talk about the frogs of the region, how to identify them and how to create frog-friendly habitats. This will be followed by a spotlight and listening tour around the Wonga Wetland lagoons near Albury and a demonstration of how to identify different frogs by their calls. Dr Wassens is currently leading a research project funded by the Murray Wetlands Working Group, looking at the relationship between different flood management regimes and the breeding responses of frogs in wetlands along the Murray, from the Hume Dam to the South Australian border. She is an expert on the Murray River’s most endangered frog species, the Southern Bell Frog.