During her visit to Bathurst on Tuesday, Bronwyn Taylor, MLC, said she believes Charles Sturt University to be one of the country's leading universities when it comes to distant education.
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Ms Taylor, who is the NSW Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women, visited Bathurst as part of the celebration of NSW Women's Week from March 2-8.
While numbers might be falling for students living on the Bathurst campus, Ms Taylor believes this may be the case because of CSU's excellent online education system.
"To be really honest, I hear the most fantastic things about Charles Sturt University. I have a lot of people from my area that come here and live on campus here," the former Cooma-Monaro councillor said.
"I also think that there's so much more flexibility in education now and Chares Sturt does distance education so well.
"They're the cutting edge in that area now. I think people can have that flexibility and I think we're seeing more of that. I think it's the way of the future."
While numbers for living on the Bathurst campus may be going down, Ms Taylor - who has been a Nationals member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 2015 - said this shouldn't affect the city as it's already "booming".
"If your having less students then you're having less volume, but Bathurst is booming," she said.
"It's quite amazing coming into Bathurst and to see how it's thriving.
"What we've seen is big centres like Bathurst, Dubbo and Tamworth is that they're really growing, because we've seen the investment from businesses and the government into rural NSW."
On her visit to Bathurst, Ms Taylor believes that it's important to acknowledge NSW Women's Week.
"It's all about promoting women and their economic empowerment and all of those issues that are so important," she said.
"Coming to Charles Sturt, we want to acknowledge these incredible people doing these courses who are going to be the future of our state.
"I think Charles Sturt will have an important part to play in the education of our rural students."
Prior to her visit to CSU, she participated in a panel at the Central West Women's Health Centre, while also meeting with members of the Bathurst Men's Shed.
NSW Women's Week was established to be a centrepiece for the state government's commitment to improve the lives of women in NSW.
The week coincides with International Women's Day, and the NSW Women of the Year Awards.
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