Two Charles Sturt University (CSU) postgraduate information technology (IT) students have won scholarships from the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Foundation. At a presentation ceremony in Sydney today (Thursday 27 September) NSW Minister for Small Business, The Hon. David Campbell, said the scholarships represent an investment in NSW’s future skills base in information and communication technology. Joanne Hyde from Sydney and Douglas Parson from Canberra, ACT, work in IT businesses. The ACS Foundation has raised $8 million over five years towards 550 scholarships for NSW students.

The Rock Hill, a spectacular rocky outcrop south of Wagga Wagga which towers 250 metres above the surrounding countryside, has always been a significant landmark in Errol Fielder’s life. As a young boy, The Rock Hill was a constant focal point which marked Errol’s travels to and from the Riverina with his truckdriver father. Now The Rock Hill is the subject of a moving exhibition of landscape works by the Charles Sturt University (CSU) PhD candidate. Mr Fielder says his work attempts to demonstrate the shift away from the early 20th Century European painters who depicted the Australian landscape as unfamiliar and inert. “What I aspire to is embracing the spirituality expressed so beautifully by indigenous artists. The landscape of Australia is of more value to all Australians if, collectively, we recognise its mutual cross racial, or pluralist spiritual content. Australia is not just a quarry, a housing development or a big paddock.”

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Wagga Wagga Campus will tomorrow host the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Chile’s Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIA), which is based in Quilamapu. It is envisaged that the MOU for Industry Cooperation will lead to the development of collaborative research programs in viticulture, oenology, precision agriculture, conservation farming, weed management, and olives and olive oil production, as well as exchange of research and technical staff and postgraduate students. The MOU will be signed by the CSU Chancellor Lawrie Willett, AO and the Chile Minister for Agriculture, Mr Alvaro Rojas.

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Information Technology is collaborating with Hornsby TAFE College in Sydney to develop a two-year Games Diploma course. Hornsby TAFE Head Teacher Greg Higgs said during a recent “cultural exchange” four Hornsby staff travelled with a dozen students to CSU Bathurst Campus, where students from both institutions indulged in pizza and held a “computer games fest while we sat down with CSU staff to talk about credit transfer.” Exchange organiser Errol Chopping, a CSU lecturer in Computer Science, says a credit transfer package is underway. “It looks like they would get credit for three to four subjects in our Computer Science (Games Technology) degree and similar standing in our Computer Science degree. We in turn get interest from potential students and an awareness in the Hornsby region of what we do. It was positive in all respects.” Greg Higgs agrees. “Our students got a first hand look at CSU and the facilities there and they were thrilled to know they had fellow students across the ‘sandstone curtain’”, he said. “It was also really supportive for the staff. When you have common goals and common interests it leads to an intellectual and technical exchange.”

Child protection, genocide, substance abuse, the justice system and the delivery of mental health services to Aboriginal people are among topics to be presented by mental health degree students this week at a conference at Charles Sturt University’s Wagga Wagga Campus on Wednesday 27 September. The conference, titled Footprints: Many Nations on One Journey, is being organised by the students as part of their studies into the professional issues in Aboriginal mental health and will also bring together several guest speakers from State and Commonwealth authorities. Guest speakers are the Manager Clinical Partnerships, NSW Centre for Mental Health; Robyn Murray; Director of Social Health in the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Kate Gilbert; and Acting Director Adolescent Health, NSW Health, Catherine Lynch. CSU mental health course coordinator Jane Havelka said the student presentations and written reports will provide a valuable contribution to the published material on the issues in Aboriginal mental health.

With assistance of a $50 000 grant from the Federal Department of Education, Science and Technology (DEST), a Charles Sturt University (CSU) PhD student who is visiting Albury this week is helping Malaysia develop community-based speech and language services to be available to all its citizens. CSU student Sandra Van Dort said Malaysia’s speech pathology services are currently only available to people who can afford private clinics or who live near major hospitals in large Malaysian cities. “I am investigating how, together with groups such as children with affected speech, their parents, speech pathology students, speech pathologists, universities and the broader Malaysian community, these services can be provided throughout the country.” The CSU researcher and her supervisor, Associate Professor Lindy Mcallister, will meet next week with Ms Denise Miles from New South Global, which manages the Endeavour Asia Awards for DEST.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) has acknowledged the important contribution made to its establishment by Sir Charles Cutler who has died aged 88. Sir Charles was the leader of the NSW Country Party (now the NSW Nationals) from 1959 to 1975 and Deputy Premier in the government of Sir Robert Askin from 1965 to 1975. In his role as MLA for Orange (1947-75) and as Minister for Education and Science (1965-72), he was instrumental in the setting up of Mitchell College of Advanced Education (MCAE), which eventually became the Bathurst Campus of Charles Sturt University. CSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter expressed condolences on behalf of the University. “Sir Charles made an enormous contribution to education in New South Wales, not least as the Minister who oversaw the foundation and early growth of MCAE.” Sir Charles was born at Forbes in 1918, served in World War II and was elected to the NSW Parliament in 1947.

A forum hosted by Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange will review Australia’s position within the Asian trade arena, especially Japan and China. Expert speakers, including keynote speaker and Australia’s Japanese Consul General Tsukasa Kawada, will provide up-to-date assessments of economic developments and trade opportunities in Asia. Head of CSU Orange Campus, Professor Kevin Parton, believes the forum encapsulates the University’s strong relationship with Asia. “The Asia Today forum highlights our continuing research and tour visits to Asia and provides a great opportunity for companies and entrepreneurs to review Australia’s trade performance with Asia with the intention of trading with the region.” Issues to be covered will range from a consideration of the general growth prospects in Japan and China through to detailed case studies on how to get started in exporting. The Asia Today forum runs from 9am to 2pm on Friday 22 September. The Orange forum complements an international academic business conference also hosted by CSU that focuses on trade with China, being held on 21 and 22 September in the NSW Blue Mountains > see more.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is expanding the number of student Accommodation Residences as a major initiative in response to demand from prospective students and their families. CSU’s acting Executive Director of Student Services, Andrew Callander said the University is planning to substantially increase the number of beds available for students and to increase the variety and type of accommodation available. Initially CSU will add around 170 beds by 2009 on all its major campuses: Albury-Wodonga Campus: 48 new beds to come onto the Thurgoona site; Bathurst Campus: Four eight-bed cottages to open by February 2007; Dubbo Campus: Fully commissioning of new student accommodation totalling 62 places; Orange Campus: Converted cottages for 20 students on the CSU Orange Campus; Wagga Wagga Campus: Two eight-bed cottages to come on stream by February each year from 2007 to 2009. A 20-bed complex using funds from a bequest to the University will be built in 2007. “We are also planning for a large scale project to add 600 new beds to meet increasing demand for on-campus accommodation on our Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst and Wagga Wagga campuses,” Mr Callander said. The project will expand the range of accommodation offered and take the total beds available for students on campus at CSU to around 3 000.