Students from around the world have been warming to the science of water in recent times, but this year it's red hot.

Water quality and sustainability are global issues that affect industries, governments and whole nations, and now a stream of students have decided to get ‘water wise' and tap into the bank of knowledge available through a unique Australian program.

A total of
CQUniversity's Access Grid used for ICEwARM lectures.69 students from around the world studying through five different Australian universities, including CQUniversity, have enrolled in ICEWaRM's Master of Sustainable Water Management program. ICEWaRM is the International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management, which involves CQUniversity, Flinders, Deakin, University of South Australia, and the University of Adelaide.

An Australian Government initiative, ICEWaRM was established in 2004 to provide a national focus and international gateway to Australia's leading education, training and research expertise in water resources management.

CQUniversity's lecturer for the program Ben Kele said the good student numbers reflect the growing interest in water sustainability around the world.

"This year we have an excellent number of post-graduate science and engineering students enrolled in the program - in fact it's an increase of 29 students from last year," Mr Kele said.

 "Some of our students are working in the coal seam gas industry, while others are employed by governments and large corporations. This year we have 17 students who are studying the program externally."

The group comes together for a three-hour lecture each week via CQUniversity's Access Grid - a unique, high-tech interface which allows students to listen and interact with the lecturer and other students from a number of different locations.

CQUniversity is a world leader in the technology, thanks to the technical genius of Jason Bell, who is based in Rockhampton.  CQUniversity is one of the few universities in the world to offer a full-course via the Access Grid and it's even rarer to offer recordings of the lectures to external students in such user-friendly way.

Lecturer Ben Kele at the Access Grid in Rockhampton.This week's guest lecture via the Access Grid was presented by Jim Kelly, Managing Director of water consultancy company Arris. CQUniversity has recently signed an MOU with Arris and Midell Water in a research project looking at the coal seam gas industry's water issues.

"This week's presentation shows how CQUniversity's MOU with Arris is already having benefits for students in one of our more successful courses," said Mr Kele.