Forty-four students from two South Korean tertiary institutions have just arrived in Rockhampton on a winter visit.

The groups from Ulsan College and Jinju University are staying with local Homestay families for periods between five weeks and two months while undertaking English language classes at CQU Language Centre.

Vanessa Seekee, due to graduate from CQU later this year with an MA in history, recently was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to the World War II veterans of Torres Strait.

Her Masters was a history of the World War II airbase at Horn Island, Torres Strait.

CQU Publishing has hosted a barbecue to raise funds for children's hospital facilities in Gladstone and Rockhampton, in conjunction with Radio SeaFM's Give Me Five campaign.

Almost $280 was raised with help from staff from the Publishing Unit, Occupational Health and Safety, the Division of Teaching and Learning Services, and Salaries.

Speed skater Maharshi Udayan Joshi has chosen to study at CQU's Melbourne International Campus while he trains for the 2006 World Skating Championships.

The Masters of Accounting student completed one term in Sydney before transferring to Melbourne in Term 1 2005.

The federal government’s higher education reforms -- which include proposals to establish teaching-only universities -- threaten the fundamental operations of universities according to CQU Vice Chancellor & President John Rickard.

“I would find it abhorrent if CQU were forced to be a teaching only university,” said Professor Rickard for an upcoming interview with ABC’s Four Corners.

Proposed higher education reforms would stifle CQU’s self-determination and prevent the University from providing adequate services and responding appropriately to the needs of its communities, said CQU Vice Chancellor and President John Rickard in an interview by ABC’s Four Corners.

“We need to sustain a level of funding to all universities that enables them to develop and nurture [activities] within their own organization.

The level of public funding of Australian universities has reached “alarming” levels that could eventually compromise the quality of Australian higher education and could force Australian students to get their degrees in China and elsewhere overseas, according to CQU’s Vice Chancellor.

“That ought to be of great concern to us,” said Professor John Rickard, who believes the higher education sector would not be able to sustain any further reductions of government funding without fundamentally changing its appearance or mode of operation.

Central Queensland University’s Vice Chancellor is optimistic about the future of universities in general and CQU in particular, even though reforms to higher education threaten to redistribute funding away from regions and limit university autonomy.

“I’m perhaps more hopeful than others about what the outcomes of the current debate may be,” said Professor John Rickard.

A procession of fifty-six graduates will signal the start of this year’s Central Queensland University graduation ceremony on Saturday 9 July.

The graduates will be joined by the University’s academic staff, school children from the district and a bagpiper.

CQU psychology researchers are putting their money down for a gambling project which will see participants gamble on a simulated pokie machine.

Researchers Dr Matthew Rockloff and Victoria Dyer are seeking willing participants to take part in the gambling study.