Dr Heather Robinson has been welcomed by the Vice-Chancellor of Charles Sturt University (CSU) in her new appointment as Head of the Orange Campus. CSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter said, “I have much pleasure in announcing that Dr Heather Robinson has been appointed Head of the Orange Campus of Charles Sturt University. Heather will hold this appointment concurrently with the position of Associate Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences. I congratulate Heather on her appointment and look forward to working with her in this role.” Dr Robinson, who has worked at CSU in Orange  for the past six years, is keen to build on the relationship between the University and the community. “I believe it’s important to retain the history of the campus, but it’s also exciting to see health courses strengthening. The potential of a medical school is a natural progression for the Orange Campus and would further increase Charles Sturt University’s contribution to the community and regional Australia as a whole.”

Students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) will put their best foot forward during the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Conference and Exhibition at Darling Harbour in Sydney from Tuesday 19 July. The biennial event is hailed as a significant one for the film and television industries across the South East Asian region. “Staff and students from the Bachelor of Arts (Television Production) program have become increasingly involved in this event over the years,” said Mr Patrick Sproule from the School of Communication and Creative Industries at CSU in Wagga Wagga. “Over 80 television production students from Charles Sturt University will attend and work at the event this year. Our Outside Broadcast (OB) vehicle will be parked in the Sydney Exhibition Hall and set up as a working exhibit. Students will use the van to cover the event, feeding into local venue audio visual services as well as generating internet content for promotion. Furthermore, students will be assisting with the overall operation of the conference and exhibition. Our involvement is significant in a very professional and public arena. One of the first things that attendees will see is video screens with content produced by our crew.”

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.

Almost 90 high schools from across NSW and Victoria will be represented at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 July as their students consider studying animal, equine or veterinary sciences. The Years 11 and 12 students will visit CSU for two days as part of the University’s MyDay, an initiative where high school students are offered the opportunity to experience a day in the life of a university student. Focusing on animal and veterinary sciences, this is the largest MayDay event to be held at CSU in Wagga Wagga in 2011. The high school students will participate in hands-on workshops in the Veterinary Pre Clinical Centre, the Equine Centre and the sheep yards on the CSU Farm within the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga. The University will also host general information sessions on accommodation and financial support. Undergraduate courses under the spotlight during the two day MyDay event include the Bachelor of Animal Science, the Bachelor of Equine Science, and the Bachelor of Veterinary Biology/ Bachelor of Veterinary Science. Read more here.

The next Western Districts National Exhibition of Photography will be on show at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo from Monday 18 July until Friday 12 August. “This event, approved by the Australian Photographic Society, involves photographers from all over Australia,” said the exhibition’s coordinator Ms Lorna White. “The show is run by a very small committee in Dubbo and Orange with help from members of the Dubbo and Orange camera clubs.” Head of Campus for CSU in Dubbo, Dr Beverley Moriarty said, “The Dubbo Campus has hosted annual photography exhibitions on its walls for several years and the images are always inspiring and thought provoking. We encourage members of the public to visit our campus to view these images and to take the time to look around our grounds while they’re here. The Dubbo Campus is a wonderful resource for the community.”

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.

Author, songwriter, performer, and recording artist Mr Jim Haynes is the next writer-in-residence in 2011 at the Booranga Writers’ Centre at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga. He has written and recorded many songs, including Since Cheryl Went Feral and Don’t Call Wagga Wagga Wagga. Mr Haynes’ first book, I’ll Have Chips! was a huge seller and won him the inaugural Bush Laureate ‘Book of the Year’ award in Tamworth in 1996. He has since released 12 books of Australian short stories and verse, mostly for ABC Books, including An Australian Heritage of Verse and An Australian Treasury of Popular Verse, which won him his second and third Bush Laureate ‘Book of the Year’ awards. Mr Haynes will be at the Monthly Writers’ Workshop on Saturday 23 July, from 2pm to 5pm at the Booranga Writers’ Centre at CSU in Wagga Wagga. He will also perform on Tuesday 26 July at the Wagga Wagga City Library, Baylis Street in Wagga Wagga from 5pm, alongside visiting poets Ms Jane Williams and Mr David Reiter.

Questions about student career development and work opportunities are explored daily by the Careers Service at Charles Sturt University (CSU). However a free public lecture to be held in Deniliquin on Wednesday 20 July takes the question of career development further to explore a student’s sense of purpose. Hosted by CSU and Deniliquin Council, the lecture will be presented by Mr Paul Worsfold, a Career Development Officer at CSU in Wagga Wagga. “The focus of our Careers Service has shifted from a traditional role of simply preparing students for graduate employment opportunities to career development work starting soon after students enrol at university, if not sooner,” said Mr Worsfold. “Now we explore a student’s ‘sense of purpose’ and what is known as a ‘sense of agency’ or becoming one’s own agent for achieving life, learning and work aspirations. So career development, ‘sense of purpose’ and ‘sense of agency’ are all key aspects supporting student retention. The work of the Careers Service, its use of career action plans, tools for student reflection and a little research, all indicate that career development learning is more than helping students to find a job.”

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.