Haydn Lancaster was just one of the students who experienced university life this week in a program tailored in partnership with North Bundaberg High School and CQU Bundaberg to help OP (Uni) Eligible students with the transition between year 12 and university.

"The program aims to open their eyes more widely to what university life might entail and what the university culture asks of first year students as well as what CQU has to offer" said Coordinator Karen Seary.

Brisbane 76-year-old Ernie Peralta - who gained renown through his 2020 Summit suggestion of planting ‘golden gurus' in workplaces - is not just talking the talk.

He is also embodying his vision by continuing to work as a marketing lecturer at CQU Brisbane International Campus, at an age when many people are planning caravan trips around Australia.

A second-year Bachelor of Learning Management student at CQU Emerald, Sonia Bridgeman has been awarded the 2008 QCWA Central Highlands Division Annual Bursary, worth $500.

The QCWA (Queensland Country Women's Association) award follows her success last year in gaining an Equity Computer Award from CQU's Equity and Diversity Office.

CQU Performing Arts graduate Andrea Shine is in the cast of 6 singers for a lavish new production called OperaMania, which opened on April 19 at Johannesburg's Nelson Mandela Theatre.

The show is billed as a rival for Cirque de Soleil in terms of production values and features arias from Carmen, La Traviata, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, The Marriage of Figaro and many more.

Tweed Shire Council Farming Futures Committee member Peter McLaughlin* and Russel Kimmins, Director R&D from Green Plate Pty Ltd, recently (April 22-23) visited the Centre for Plant and Water Science to discuss potential co-operation on 2 new technologies.

The first is a solar-powered light trap with varying spectral properties that can potentially be adapted to attract and capture, or monitor, numbers of different insect pests of horticultural and agricultural crops.

Composer Kevin Purcell is just as excited by the prospects of the 2-year journey ahead as he is for the potential of an opening night performance of a new musical based on the acclaimed novel The Mapmaker's Opera.

Dr Purcell has managed to gain the rights for a musical version of the novel, despite interest from film companies in buying up blanket options for popular books.

The Mining Industry Skills Centre officially opened its Simulator Training Room at Central Queensland University's Rockhampton Campus recently (April 15).

Simulation-based training plays a fundamental role in the Skills Centre's core business and the establishment of the training room will ensure that members of the Queensland resources sector will now have greater access to innovative training solutions.