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The past two weeks have seen some significant milestones for Charles Sturt University.
On 25 September, Dr Hamid Jamali and Associate Professor Christine Edwards-Groves, both based at Charles Sturt in Wagga Wagga, were acknowledged in The Australian’s 2019 Research magazine as Australia’s top researchers in their chosen fields.
The publication, which highlights the work and influence of Australia’s top researchers and research institutions in more than 250 fields, named Dr Jamali the country’s top Library and Information Science researcher, and Associate Professor Christine Edwards-Groves as the nation’s leading researcher in Teaching and Teacher Education.
Charles Sturt was also named Australia’s top research institution in the areas of African Studies and History, and Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology, while Bathurst-based Professor Sharynne McLeod was crowned the world’s most cited expert in the field of Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Engagement) Professor Heather Cavanagh said the publication’s raft of acknowledgments were evidence of the University’s ongoing commitment to impactful research endeavours.
“It is fantastic to see these hard-working and skilled researchers rewarded for their efforts,” Professor Cavanagh said.
“Charles Sturt University is committed to championing research which helps communities flourish and shapes the world we live in.”
As Senior Lecturer in the School of Information Studies, Dr Jamali’s research helps academics identify best practices in scholarly communication, informs decisions in the scholarly publishing industry, and helps to improve the services that academic libraries provide for researchers.
The other CSU researcher recognised, associate professor Edwards-Groves, is a lecturer in Literacy Studies in the School of Education. Her research is focused on classroom interaction, dialogic pedagogies and professional learning practices.
Recognised as a world leader in action research, she was invited to co-chair the Global Assembly for Knowledge Democracy (2015-17), and in 2015 was awarded the inaugural Literacy Research Grant for the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia alongside Charles Sturt colleague Dr Christina Davidson.
Associate Professor Edwards-Groves described her inclusion in the list as both “a complete surprise” and “an honour”.
“It should also recognise and honour my research collaborators and the practitioners with whom I have worked over decades,” she said.
“My career has focussed on working for and with educators in the Riverina, across Australia, and around the globe to understand and improve their work.”
And the good news for CSU didn’t stop there.
On Tuesday this week, the Good Universities Guide 2020 revealed the University as Australia’s top higher education institution for graduate employment.
The ratings provide independent five-star performance ratings for every university in Australia, based on student-relevant criteria such as graduate salaries, teaching quality, learning resources and graduate employment rates and more.
The guide revealed 86% of Charles Sturt graduates are in full-time employment within four months of completing their course – a superior rate to any other Australian university.
That figure is a massive 14% higher than the national average, and also an increase on the University’s result in the 2019 guide (85%), which also placed Charles Sturt at the top of the publication’s rankings.
CSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Vann said the result was “testament to the University’s continued push for educational excellence”.
"Charles Sturt University is dedicated to equipping our students with the skills and know-how required to thrive in the modern workplace and across a broad spectrum of industries,” Professor Vann said.
“The University’s outcomes in the ‘Good Universities Guide’ indicate that employers across Australia and internationally have no doubts that we are achieving this goal.”
He added that the University’s alumni have a “proud history of swiftly realising their career goals and contributing to their communities in meaningful ways”.