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Three expos are being held in north east Victoria this week to showcase Australian tertiary institutions and courses on offer in 2010. Over 40 institutions including Charles Sturt University (CSU) will be represented at the information days being held in Wangaratta today, Tuesday 23 June and in Albury-Wodonga on Wednesday 24 June. An earlier event was held in Shepparton on 22 June. Representatives from local and interstate universities, institutes of NSW TAFE and private providers are available to discuss career options with Years 11 and 12 students from Victoria and NSW. “The days present a great opportunity to find out about the courses of interest in one place at one time,” said CSU Prospective Student Adviser, Ms Rebecca Gale Collins.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Orange boasts a newly refurbished football field thanks to funding from the Federal Government. The request for funding for the construction of a ‘soccer field, associated change rooms and weight training facilities’ at CSU at Orange was made to the Commonwealth under the Voluntary Student Unionism scheme in November 2006.  The $374 000 funding was approved in early 2007. During 2008 investigation of the site revealed that substantial earth works would be required to establish a soccer field.  The decision was made to run soccer games on the football oval, with soccer and rugby being played on alternate weeks.  This required an upgrade of the playing surface together with enhanced irrigation.  Additionally, new goal posts, soccer nets and corner flags had to be purchased for soccer games.

A comparison of Mary Shelley’s horror novel Frankenstein with the futuristic film Bladerunner and finding connections and contrasts between female writers Jane Austen and Fay Weldon are all on the agenda at Charles Sturt University (CSU) this week. The annual HSC English Study Day will be held at CSU at Wagga Wagga on Friday 19 June. Staff from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences have joined forces with the Wagga Wagga branch of the English Teachers Association to organise lectures and workshops for up to 1 000 students from regional high schools as well as TAFE NSW Riverina Institute. The wide range of HSC English texts, including novels, plays and poetry, will be analysed and debated throughout the day. “We are looking forward to robust and insightful discussions about the many texts available in the HSC English syllabus in 2009,” said Mr David Gilbey, Senior Lecturer in English at the School of Humanities at Social Sciences at CSU at Wagga Wagga. Presentations will be given by CSU academics, high school teachers as well as CSU students training to be English teachers. “The rich mix of English texts up for consideration will hopefully benefit and delight HSC students as well as their teachers and CSU students about to embark on their careers as teachers.”

Researchers from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Institute of Land, Water and Society (ILWS)  will meet at Wagga Wagga for two days this week to focus on setting a research agenda to tackle the big issues facing the Murray Darling Basin. Institute Director Professor Max Finlayson said, “the inaugural forum is aimed at addressing the issues which are really challenging Australians in this region, such as learning to live with climate change and ensuring we maintain healthy people, communities and landscapes.” Around 70 CSU researchers based across the University will attend the forum and talk about environmental issues including restoring and sustaining our wetlands and valuing ecosystem services. Social researchers will focus on areas such as the future for regional natural resource management, human wellbeing and healthy communities, and developing regional business enterprise.  “It is important to get our researchers into one room to sit together and focus on the big issues at hand. We are all doing individual research projects but the old adage that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ rings true,” Professor Finlayson said.

An innovative Charles Sturt University (CSU) program is giving students from 10 Riverina high schools the chance to sample work in the information technology (IT) industry. The School of Computing and Mathematics at CSU at Wagga Wagga and the Division of Information Technology will host IT Work Experience for about 80 students throughout the year. The high school students will assist in a range of tasks including networking a small office, taking and attending to technical support calls as well as gaining an appreciation for the host of IT-related jobs and tasks at CSU. The Head of the School of Computing and Mathematics, Associate Professor Irfan Altas said, “being a regional city, there’s not many opportunities for school students who are interested in IT to get exposure to the industry, so we came up with the idea to offer them real life, hands-on experience.” One of the features of the work experience is a ‘spend a minute with an IT professional session’, where the students meet one of CSU’s IT managers to discuss their work and role. The students will also participate in mock job interviews.

The Head of the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences at Charles Sturt University (CSU) Associate Professor John Kent has been named as one of the founding board members of the Primary Industries Education Foundation. The focus of the new Foundation will be on school children and encouraging them to learn more about primary industries. It will deliver educational services to schools such as a web portal of educational resources on primary industries, advice on professional development for teachers and information on career paths in primary industries. The principal of NSW Department of Primary Industries’ (DPI) Tocal College, Mr Cameron Archer is the inaugural chairman. Associate Professor Kent is a member of the interim board as a representative of the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture. He has over 30 years experience in agricultural education both in Australia and overseas and is a member of the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, a collaborative alliance between CSU and DPI.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) primary teacher student is looking forward to the end of semester break in July for more than one reason. Ms Emma Wagner is one of 19 students from across Australia and New Zealand selected for a fortnight long trip to the United Kingdom (UK). The company, My Overseas Experience or myOE has awarded a scholarship to the CSU student after she expressed her desire for international experience in her winning video. The inaugural myOE university tour will take in locations including London, Brighton, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Bath and Stonehenge. Ms Wagner, from Sydney, hopes to complete her Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree in 2009 through the School of Teacher Education at CSU at Bathurst. “I am looking forward to the trip and the chance it will give me to get a taste of life overseas as I would like to eventually teach in the UK,” said Ms Wagner.