PhD students Sabine Smith-Flenady, Amy Suthers and Candice Pullen have followed diverse paths to end up in the same laboratory complex at CQUniversity in Rockhampton.

Amy completed high school in Australia and has worked her way through the system from undergraduate biomedical sciences to honours and now PhD research.

More than 60 guests attended a CQUniversity Graduate/Alumni function at Sydney's Forbes Hotel recently (Nov 30), capping off a big year for networking events.

Sydney function host Susan Loomes, as Campus Director, gave a short presentation about the importance of alumni and the future direction of the University, including our bid to become the first dual-sector institution based in Queensland.

CQUniversity has not only recognised course coordinators whose courses scored highly for student satisfaction. It has also congratulated those who have solicited the highest course evaluation response rates.

CQUniversity this week welcomed Martin Elms to the newly-created role of Manager, Government Relations.

The role involves working closely with the Vice-Chancellor and senior executive to leverage relationships with all tiers of government, across every area of University activity.

As our Music and Theatre students start to trickle back to Australia after spending most of November in the United States, tour leader Dr Derrin Kerr is already considering an invite to take a CQUniversity jazz group on a study tour to Cuba in the future..

Nicholas Chesla, MScJournalism New York, LLM Melbourne is an experienced editor, documentary film producer and award-winning Australian journalist, who has been based in New York City for the past decade specialising in business reporting.  For over 18 years, Nicholas has provided newsroom leadership in the print, online and broadcast media, including most recently as Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor with The Bond Buyer, a 119 year old publication and a Wall Street institution.

Dr Alison Owens BA(Hons) Sydney, GradCert TESOL UNSW, EdD UTS is the Program Coordinator for the Doctorate of Professional Studies and the Graduate Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language programs at CQUniversity.  She is an Associate of the Intercultural Education Research Centre (IERC) and teaches research methods and ethics for the social sciences.

Mr Jim Cavaye, BAgrSc(Hons) Qld, MRuralSc NE, PhD Wisconsin is one of Australia's leading community development practitioners and educators with 20 years experience working particularly with rural and regional communities.  He is the Director of Cavaye Community Development and an international author and speaker on the role of government in community capacity building.

Photo highlights from the CQUniversity Ball held at the CQ Community Sports Centre in Rockhampton on Friday evening, December 3..

Residents of the Central Highlands Regional Council (CHRC) area will be asked to share their opinions on issues affecting their community into the future when CQUniversity conducts a telephone survey targeting randomly selected households in the area this month.

CHRC Mayor Peter Maguire explains the importance of the survey, saying "Council is committed to conducting these community surveys on a regular basis.