CSU lecturer Maria Bennet said the Teacher in Community program provided Indigenous students across the region a chance to study a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) and was different from the mainstream course structure.

“When they go into the community they’ll have personal support via technology and in person, so it is different from distance education,” she said.

“There’s a much closer alignment with live technology.”

The students will come four times a year to the Dubbo campus to attend residential school where they are given study, note taking, assignment and exam support.

“It’s critically important for them because for one reason or another, such as family commitments, they can’t leave their communities,” she said.

“What’s amazing is they’ll have the ability to understand where the Indigenous child comes from because they have a close connection with the language, customs and ways of learning.”

Ms Bennet said the 17 students would get the best of university life and staying in their own community.

“They help bridge between the strengths of what an Indigenous child are and the western way of learning,” she said.

By the time the students graduated, she said, more Indigenous people would take up the program.

“It will be a strong affirmation for the program,” she said.