Brock University will host its annual Open House this Sunday, March 3, opening up the school to more than 3,000 prospective students, and their families and friends.

The event runs 12:30 to 4 p.m. and features campus and program-specific tours.

Guests will also have the opportunity to speak with professors, staff and students from every academic program and student service at Brock, including Co-op, career services and student awards and financial aid.

New this year, a transfer recruitment and admissions officer has been hired by the University to help facilitate the successful transfer of students moving between Ontario colleges and Brock.

Along with other academic advisors, they will be on hand all day at this Sunday’s Open House in the Computer Commons to help interested college students with on-the-spot university applications, admissions and credit assessments.

“The traditional pathways for post-secondary education in Ontario used to be a straight line from high school to college or university,” says Barb Davis, Registrar for Brock University. “Those pathways are now no longer as direct.”

“Students are increasingly opting to alternate between full- and part-time studies, switch programs, take time off to work, or transfer between schools and even fields of study,” says Davis. “We’re also seeing an increase in students coming to Brock with previous post-secondary experience.”

According to 2008-09 Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities data on college graduate pathways, approximately 25 per cent of college graduates reported that they were continuing their education at an Ontario university.

“It’s not that these pathways and opportunities don’t exist, it is that they can be difficult to understand,” says Davis. “Mobility in education is definitely on the rise and we’re trying to put a personal face on the process to help our students move though some of the obstacles that they might face.”

“Open House is not only an opportunity for any college or university student to explore what Brock has to offer,” she adds, “but it is also a one-stop shop where you can explore all of the post-secondary options that are open to you as a student.”

Some of the college-university transfer options that are popular at Brock include early childhood education, police foundations, recreation and leisure studies, social service work and geomatics.

Brock offers more than 72 undergraduate options, 34 Masters programs and eight Doctoral programs. The University’s Faculties include Applied Health Sciences, Education, Graduate Studies, Humanities, Mathematics and Science, Social Science, as well as the Goodman School of Business.

For more info and to register for this year’s Open House at Brock on March 3, go to: https://experience.brocku.ca/events/openhouse.ezc