Academic Portfolio highlights from 2021

While settling into my new role as Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), I’ve had opportunity to learn more about the recent and current work taking place in our University and in particular, within our Academic Portfolio. I’ve been really impressed with the breadth and quality of the work in our Portfolio and I’d like to recognise and share a few of the outstanding results our Faculties and Divisions achieved last year.

Faculty of Science & Health

• FOSH welcomed 43 students to our inaugural Doctor of Medicine based at the Orange campus! All of these students are of rural origin and two are First Nations students.
• The School of Allied Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences and Three Rivers Department of Rural Health have joined forces to establish a community-based podiatry clinic in Albury-Wodonga. The clinic provides students with valuable hands-on experiences and clients with podiatry services they would not otherwise access.
• Throughout the year, FOSH staff contributed to several large research projects spanning agriculture, farming, health, ageing, ecology, biodiversity and more.

Faculty of Arts and Education

• FOAE revitalised our Bachelor of Communication. I’ve been told it is now the only communication degree in the country to be co-developed, co-designed and co-delivered with our distinguished alumni and industry partners.
• Our Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work (Professional Qualifying) have been awarded full 5-year reaccreditation from the Australian Association of Social Workers. They also commended Charles Sturt for our contribution to the profession in regional Australia.
• Our teaching staff received the national 2021 Patji-Dawes Language Teaching Group Award for the Graduate Certificate in Wiradjuri Language, Culture and Heritage!

Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences

• FOBJBS launched several exciting new and revitalised courses for roll out this year, including a new suite of on-campus course options in information technology, accounting and engineering.
• The Centre for Customs and Excise Studies delivered the pilot Trade Enforcement Specialist Program to the Australian Border Force.
• A team of our cyber security students won one of two prizes at the NSW Police Force’s inaugural Cybercrime Think Tank competition.

Our Divisions also achieved many impressive results during 2021.

The Division of Student Success launched two new services for our students. The first was First Nations Student Connect, which provides a seamless entry point for First Nations students to access all of our University’s available services, such as academic skills advice, scholarships, and our Away from Base services. Our new Careers and Skills Hub was the second service. The hub features 24/7 online resources, individual feedback, group workshops, employability skill workshops within curriculum, 1:1 appointments, and new student jobs board.

The Division of Library Services remained committed to delivering practical, high-quality support for students throughout 2021, regardless of where they were studying. More than 270 eTextbooks and 885,000 eBook chapters were provided at no cost to students last year. DLS also delivered 132 classes to 3,873 students, amassed 43,927 views on their 64 skills videos, and improved their online chat, phone and online appointment bookings systems. Approximately 3,300 students responded to a Library survey and agreed that “when I am away from campus, I can access the library resources and services that I need” (scoring 6.18 on a 7-point scale).

The Division of Learning and Teaching continued to provide learning and teaching support during the COVID-19 restrictions. This included building 1,600 online exams, transferring subjects to online, and responding to nearly 3,000 service requests. The DLT team also started work on our new Education Framework, which is aligned to our University Strategy and builds upon Charles Sturt’s 30 years of leadership in online and regional learning and teaching. Our Graduate Certificate Learning and Teaching in Higher Education had more than 90 staff enrolments last year, with 34 staff graduating from the DLT-run course.

There were, of course, countless other achievements in the Academic Portfolio last year and certainly many more to look forward to this year. I feel fortunate to have the chance to be involved in some of great work in the Academic Portfolio and am eager to see what we achieve in the coming months.

Emeritus Professor Sue Carthew