Charles Sturt University (CSU) graduates are not only excelling nationally in finding full-time work but they are making regional, rural and remote communities better places to live.
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This week CSU celebrated the release of the Good Universities Guide 2018 showing 83.9 per cent of its graduates found full-time employment within four months of graduation, compared with the national average of 69.5 per cent.
CSU reported that the proportion of its graduates finding full-time employment was higher than at any other Australian university.
At the Daily Liberal’s request, CSU released information about where the graduates were working.
It told of 2057 of the CSU graduates who responded to the 2016 Graduate Outcomes Survey having indicated they were “working in Australia”.
“Of these, 45 per cent reported working for an employer in a regional, rural or remote area,” CSU revealed.
CSU was awarded five stars for graduate employment, median graduate salary and learner engagement in the guide.
Acting CSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Toni Downes pointed to its teaching style.
"The fact that almost 84 per cent of Charles Sturt University graduates find employment within four months of graduation is a testament to the quality and strength of our teaching and learning including our practical, hands-on approach through workplace learning both in Australia and overseas,” she said.
"Our graduates are indeed job-ready for the professions in our regional communities as well as nationally and internationally.”
Professor Downes said CSU had the highest proportion of successful jobseekers in the fields of communications, computing and information systems, agriculture and environmental studies, and psychology.
“This report also shows that not only do CSU graduates get jobs, but their starting salaries is one of the highest of Australian universities at $60 000,” she said.
The guide also noted that 22 per cent of domestic students who enrolled at CSU come from a low socio- economic background. Professor Downes said CSU was striving to “make higher education readily accessible to all members of our communities”.
In 2016, 43,153 students enrolled at CSU. Of these, 17,573 or 41 per cent enrolled in an internal course and 25,580 or 59 per cent enrolled in a program through CSU online.
CSU continues to campaign with La Trobe University for approval and funding to establish the proposed Murray Darling Medical School.
It would operate in a “region where doctor shortages impact on health care”.
