Charles Sturt University (CSU) will join with 42 other higher education providers to showcase its education opportunities to local high school students at the Albury-Wodonga Tertiary Day on Wednesday 22 June in Albury. CSU Prospective Student Adviser, Ms Emily Hill, said the expo provides an important opportunity for students to compare what higher education providers around Victoria, NSW and ACT can offer. “Over 1 200 high school students are due to attend the event, which presents a great oportunity for regional students to access course information from a variety of institutions. The knowledge shared at these events will help students to make informed decisions about their options for life beyond Year 12,” Ms Hill said. The Albury event will run from 9am to 2.15pm in the Albury Entertainment Centre, Swift Street, Albury.

University students from around Australia will gather for five days at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga next month to discuss the future of food, water and climate for a sustainable world. The 2011 Students of Sustainability (SoS) conference will be held from Wednesday 6 to Sunday 10 July. The annual event includes forums and workshops on various sustainability topics which will demonstrate how theory and practice can be used to make positive social and environmental changes. Other topics to be covered include anti-nuclear developments, and the Australian Student Environment Network. Conference activities also include hands-on workshops, updates on current campaigns, Do-It-Yourself sustainability skill sharing, music performances, lectures and local excursions. This year is the twentieth anniversary of the SoS conference, and the first time it has been held in a regional city since 1997.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) researchers are asking beef producers to help them find out more information about a condition affecting up to 10 percent of calves. Researchers from the Fred Morley Unit are undertaking one of the first studies of the impact of scours (diarrhoea) in calves in Australian beef herds. It is the most common symptom of illness in young calves reducing growth rates and causing death in a small number of cases. Senior lecturer with the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Dr Jan Lievaart said,  “Most of the research into calf scours in beef cattle has been done in Northern America and this project aims to get hard data for the Australian situation to see if there are any differences”. Surveys have been sent to 1 000 beef producers in the Hume Livestock Health and Pest Authority area and researchers hope to follow up by collecting samples from affected animals to identify the types of pathogens causing the infection. Producers who return their surveys will receive free entry to the EH Graham Centre  Beef Field Day on Thursday 4 August.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) veterinarian said the Hendra virus is very unlikely to pose an immediate risk for horse owners in southern NSW. However, senior lecturer in Equine Medicine with the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences Dr Kris Hughes, said a confirmed case of the Hendra virus at Wollongbar on the north coast does serve as a warning for all horse owners, veterinarians and other individuals dealing with horses in the region to be vigilant. “The risk is very low given our geographical location, but people should be aware of any changes in their horses’ behaviour, neurological signs and respiratory signs,” he said. The Hendra virus is transmitted to horses by flying foxes and is known to emerge only in autumn and winter in Queensland and northern NSW. In rare cases it can be transmitted from horses to humans and four of the seven people ever diagnosed with the virus have died. Dr Hughes hopes a vaccine being developed by the Australian Animal Health Laboratory will be available and widely distributed next year.

University students committed to the environment will put their ideas on show in the main street of Albury this week as part of the Students on Sustainability (SoS) conference being staged at Charles Sturt University (CSU) until Sunday 10 July. A stall will be set up in Dean Street in central Albury to allow the residents of Albury-Wodonga to be photographed in front of artwork highlighting the importance of healthy water futures, allowing them to add messages of support, starting Wednesday 6 July. These photos will then be displayed to the public on Friday 8 July from 6.30pm to 7.30pm at the University. Event co-organiser and CSU environment student, Ms Meryn Shaw, said the students wanted to involve the community in the activities, with around 400 students expected to gather for the five day event. The local Wiradjuri community and CSU Dean of the Faculty of Science, Professor Nick Klomp, will welcome participants to the SoS conference from 9am to 10.30 am on Wednesday  6 July.

Approximately 430 students in China have graduated with degrees in business studies from Charles Sturt University (CSU) during June. The CSU graduation events in China began on 8 June, with graduates celebrating their academic successes at Yangzhou University west of Shanghai. This was followed by similar ceremonies on 10 June at Jilin University of Finance and Economics in Changchun in northern China, and on 15 June at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics in Kunming in the centre of the country. Head of the International School of Business and Partnerships, Associate Professor John Atkinson, said the events culminate four years of study for these students, and highlight the importance of CSU’s international partnerships through which its courses can be offered in the rapidly growing international education market in China. In March, Professor Atkinson visited China to welcome 750 new students to their studies with CSU. “Charles Sturt University is well known in China, as it has offered this course to students there for over 10 years,” Professor Atkinson said. See photos of graduations at CSU here.

Early childhood education students from Europe have joined six other international students from as far as Canada, Ghana and Korea to commence their studies in the second academic session at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga. Ms Ines Suhonjic from Sweden and Ms Louise Nedergaard Rathleff from Denmark will study subjects from the University’s degree in early childhood and primary education for four months, using scholarships they won under a new European U Mobility project, which encourages the exchange of undergraduate students between three European and three Australian universities, including CSU. Both students said they always dreamed of coming to Australia, but could only afford it with the help of the scholarship. Ms Nedergaard Rathleff, from the Danish town of Hjorring, said she wanted to see regional Australia rather than the cities as she was more used to outgoing country people and having nature around her. The second academic session at CSU commenced on Monday 11 July and continues to Friday 28 October.

A search into the past of the Riverina and Murray regions is being made easier with the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Regional Archives extending its opening hours in Wagga Wagga. The collection, which spans 4 500 metres of shelves and boxes, includes State Archives, Regional Records and CSU Archives. CSU Regional Archives Manager, Mr Wayne Doubleday said, “We extended the weekday opening hours to include the first Saturday of each month as a trial. The idea is to be open to people from the wider community and Charles Sturt University who cannot visit the Archives in normal business hours during the week. The collection is so diverse, I think anyone who visits will definitely find something to interest them, from photographs, newspapers and maps, to land records and family history resources - just to name a few. We’re incredibly lucky to have a great resource like the Archives based in regional NSW. It’s amazing what you can find in history if you look hard enough.” The CSU Regional Archives is open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and the first Saturday of each month from 10am to 3pm. The next weekend opening will be Saturday 6 August.

During International Year of Chemistry 2011, the role chemistry plays in telling us about changes in the world around us is the focus of a seminar at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga on Monday 18 July. The seminar, entitled Chemistry in the real world – from nanotechnology to freshwater ecology, will showcase research in chemistry in the University’s School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences. Senior lecturer Dr Paul Prenzler said the study of chemistry helps us to have a better understanding of what is happening in the real world. “Underlying our health as humans and the health of the environment around us are chemical processes that can take place at very small or ‘nano’ levels or large scales, such as water quality in rivers,” he said. The seminar will discuss antioxidants and human health, river and soil health, along with wine colour and quality.