In a testament to his leading role in assessing future directions for irrigation in Australia and overseas, Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Professor Shahbaz Khan will take up a prestigious new role with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Professor Khan is currently Director of CSU’s International Centre for WATER (IC WATER) and Regional Coordinator of the Asia-Pacific office of UNESCO IHP-HELP. His extensive work has impacted on landholders across inland Australia, the irrigation industry, national water policy in Australia and the international scientific community. In the last few years, Professor Shahbaz and his team, based at CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus, have received a number of prestigious awards, including the national 2007 Eureka Prize and CSIRO’s Medal for Research Achievement. Professor Khan will also continue to supervise post graduate students at CSU. Professor Khan will join UNESCO as chief of its section on Sustainable Water Resources Development and Management in Paris, France.  

Nursing, education and business courses offered on Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Dubbo Campus will be the focus for CSU staff next week as they travel and talk to Aboriginal people in remote communities in western NSW. Director of the University’s Centre for Indigenous Studies and Head of Dubbo Campus, Mr Gary Shipp, said “This will be the first opportunity for people in some of these communities to meet senior CSU staff and discuss the courses that are available to them. It is important to talk with the local Aboriginal people about what CSU can offer, especially the newly established Centre for Indigenous Studies at Dubbo Campus.” The group will travel to Hay, Balranald, Dareton, Broken Hill and Wilcannia to visit public and private primary and secondary schools, local councils, health organisations and TAFE facilities.

The apology to the ‘Stolen Generations’ in federal parliament last week allowed Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Koori Teaching Fellow, Mr Laurie Crawford to leave the University on a high. After 37 years as an Aboriginal educator, including the last 17 years at CSU, Mr Crawford last week retired.  Mr Crawford said he has seen a lot of change in Aboriginal education, some of it good, some of it bad. “The biggest positive change has been the development of technology and the delivery of flexible learning by distance education, with a new focus on teaching methods. Another major change has been the development of CSU’s Dubbo Campus, with a major focus on Aboriginal education.” Mr Crawford started as an Aboriginal Education Assistant (AEA) at Walgett High School in 1972, the first AEA appointed to a NSW high school. He came to Bathurst in 1979 to study for a Diploma of Teaching at Mitchell College of Advanced Education, a predecessor of CSU. He then taught at Eglinton Public School near Bathurst until his appointment in 1991 as Koori Teaching Fellow at CSU.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic Professor Margaret Alston heads off to New York tomorrow 12 February to take up her role as Australia’s non-government representative to the 2008 meeting of the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women. Due to be held at the UN headquarters from Monday 25 February to Friday 7 March, the 52nd session of the Commission will be held under the theme of ‘Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women’. The Professor of Social Work and Human Services was selected last year by the Federal Government to join the Australian delegation. Professor Alston has researched widely in the field of rural social issues and is internationally recognised for her work into rural Australia. Established in 1946, the UN Commission on the Status of Women is a committee of the UN Economic and Social Council.  

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Allied Health Clinic this week celebrates five years serving the people of Albury-Wodonga and surrounding districts. Since 19 February 2003, the clinic has treated over 4 000 clients, mostly with foot and associated conditions. “And just as important, over 70 future podiatrists have received a well supervised, practical education in podiatry as they have worked in the clinic as part of their coursework,” said CSU Clinic manager, Mr Matt Austin. “The clinic is a vital part of CSU’s podiatry course as our students receive close supervision from qualified CSU staff in a hands-on, practical setting. Our graduates, who are very likely to be employed in rural and regional Australia, can start working as podiatrists with confidence in their skills and knowledge.” The clinic is now calling for new patients who will be assessed and treated by podiatry students under the supervision of qualified podiatrists. For an appointment at the CSU Allied Health Clinic, telephone the reception on 02 6051 6922.  

The exciting challenge of starting university faces over 2 500 students during Orientation 2008, up to a week of academic and social activities at Charles Sturt University (CSU) from Monday 11 February. The program is designed by CSU to help the students adjust to their new University surroundings before the commencement of on-campus classes on Monday 18 February. Compulsory academic advisory and information sessions have been organised for the new students as well as a variety of social activities. Throughout the week, the new students and their parents will be able to tour the campus, seek information about living on or off campus, visit the library, meet their new lecturers and tutors or simply get their student identification cards.  Students can also seek the advice of Orientation coordinators and leaders. Dressed in distinctive blue t-shirts, they are group of selected and trained CSU students who have returned to CSU a week earlier to help the new recruits in the transition to university life. With the theme of ‘Orientation Games’ in honour of this year’s Olympic Games, Orientation 2008 programs are being conducted at the Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange and Wagga Wagga campuses as well as in Canberra and Parramatta.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic has suggested that current threats to education as a profession will need a renewal of the profession, its professional bodies and the intellectual traditions that guide educational practice. The identified need for change is contained in a new book, 'Enabling Praxis' written by Professor Stephen Kemmis from CSU’s School of Education. The book will be launched at the upcoming Action Research and Professional Practice Conference to be hosted by University’s Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE). The conference has attracted over 110 professionals from across Australia and overseas. The event will be held at Wagga Wagga’s Country Comfort Motel on Thursday 7 February and Friday 8 February. RIPPLE Director, Professor Tom Lowrie says some of the world’s most respected education and health scholars, from Norway, Sweden, the UK, Finland and Australia, will gather to discuss and debate issues associated with professional practice, mainly in the disciplines of health and education.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic has signed contracts with the Indonesian National Olympic Committee (INOC) to continue to provide strength and conditioning coaching to the Indonesian Olympic team up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Dr Stephen Bird, an academic in exercise rehabilitation at the School of Human Movement Studies at CSU’s Bathurst Campus, was engaged by the INOC in May 2007 as Head of Team Management (Strength and Conditioning). “Following the introductory trial period with the INOC, and our success at the 2007 South East Asian Games in Thailand where Indonesia won 56 gold medals, I was asked to continue to provide expert support to the Indonesia National Olympic team,” said Dr Bird. “We shall be providing strength and conditioning services to the 16 sports Indonesia will compete in at Beijing. The contract also allows final year students from CSU’s School of Human Movement Studies to attend work experience placements with me while I am in Jakarta, with two students already attending. These opportunities provide invaluable experience for our students with support from the School and the University’s Faculty of Education.”

Charles Sturt University's (CSU) Associate Professor David Watson will take visitors on a personal journey into a world of vivid colours and fleeting glimpses. He will share his experiences with the unique and fragile biodiversity of Latin America’s rainforests in a public presentation in Albury on Monday 11 February. Professor Watson, a leading researcher with the University’s Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS), is an ecologist and avid photographer who has travelled extensively through Central America to study the plants and animals of these forests. The free presentation, which starts at 5.30pm in the Albury Library Museum, will be followed by light refreshments. The event is part of an exhibition of Professor Watson’s forest photographs in the Albury Library Museum. Entitled Estudios del bosque: studies of the forest, the exhibition is hosted by CSU and Albury City from Monday 11 January to Sunday 24 February.