After a tumultuous year, Charles Sturt University has managed to top the nation for its graduate employment ranking for the fifth consecutive year.
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The Good Education Group survey listed CSU's graduates with the highest outcomes in agriculture, environmental sciences, business and management, law and psychology.
Statewide, the university took the top ranking for its graduate employment in dentistry, science, mathematics, teaching and veterinary sciences.
"Fundamentally, it's a testament to the quality of our staff and the quality of the education that we're providing our students at Wagga and across our campus footprint," said acting vice-chancellor John Germov.
"The vast majority of undergraduate degrees have work placements so students get hands-on work experience as part of their degree and we also have a management structure where we have external advisory boards which have industry representatives on them that ensure that our degrees stay current."
It comes after the university's well-documented struggle with finances.
The institution is currently mid-way through its second round of job cuts as part of its 'sustainable futures' program.
Earlier this year, the university also announced a slate of course cuts and changes in the hopes of addressing its $80 million loss in revenue and predicted $49.5 million deficit by mid-2021.
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Professor Germov shared confidence the cuts to courses and jobs would not weaken the university's ability to contend for such prestigious results in the years to come.
"We see a great future for Wagga in particular," he said.
Latest preference data from the University Admissions Centre indicates first preferences for CSU courses next year are currently 19 per cent higher than in previous years.
"It shows we're offering the right sweep of courses that are attracting students, " Professor Germov said.
The university announced earlier this year that it would be changing the delivery model of up to 61 courses would be consolidated onto a single campus, or would be moved online.
For example, from next year, the psychology offerings will only be available to first-year students in Wagga via online delivery.
The decision to restructure the offering, in this case, Professor Germov said was based solely on uptake of the course.
"Frankly there just wasn't enough demand to justify our ability to offer it," he said.
But Professor Germov does not expect this will diminish the university's attractiveness to prospective students.
"Students can still take some subjects on campus, one of the great things about Charles Sturt is that we offer that flexibility," he said.
"It allows students to mix and match in terms of blending their learning. If they're in the region they can always come on campus and take a number of on-campus subjects if they want to."
Into the future, the university will be reviewing whether it can increase the offering of "micro-credentials" or "micro-subjects".
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"That's where a standard-length semester subject is broken up into a series of three or four modules and you can do them as a standalone module or you can do all the modules and they'll stack up to a credit-bearing degree course, into a qualification," Professor Germov said.
With the expectation that campus life will be able to return to normal from next year, Professor Germov said the accommodation offering is already tracking towards full, with over 400 students already "slotted in for next year".
"All things going well, we're planning to return to on-campus delivery [next year]," Professor Germov said.
"That's all subject to government advice."
Despite previous discussions over the creation of COVID-safe corridors for international students, Professor Germov said it would be more realistic to expect "it will be mid-year before any intake".
"Even then, most universities are predicting it will be fairly small numbers," he said.
"It's probably going to take a few years before we see anything like the number of international students that Australia has had in the past."
Regardless of the international intake, Professor Germov has previously indicated his hopes to see the university return to its domestic, region focus.
"We think over time we will be able to grow," he said.
Under the government's job-ready graduates package which passed parliament earlier this month, the university may be provided with additional funding to allow for more domestic intake.
The distribution of funded places are still under negotiation across the university sector, but Professor Germov said his understanding is that the new positions would be available from the first semester of next year.