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Online and on foot - public flocks to Open Day

10 August 2005

More than 64,000 people attended Monash Open Day online or in person this year, 16,000 more than last year.

Mr Michael D'Silva from the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering (rear) teaches visitors about the Biped Robot.

During Open Day, held over August 6 and 7, 42,570 people visited the six Victorian campuses, 4000 more than visited the university for Open Day last year.

As well as the physical visits, 21,690 people visited the university's Open Day website in the month leading up to Open Day - up from 9264 in 2004.

The Clayton campus saw the highest number of visitors with 27,000 people braving the cold and wet, up from 23,000 people last year.

The Parkville campus also saw an increase with 1570 visitors learning about pharmacy courses this year compared with 1000 last year.

The introduction of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and health sciences at the Peninsula campus attracted a lot of interest as did outdoor education, which is moving from Gippsland to Peninsula campus next year. Visitor numbers at Peninsula increased from 2480 last year to 2800 this year.

Monash postgraduate students celebrate the United Nations' World Year of Physics at Open Day.

Open Day coordinator Ms Deryn Vahl-Meyer said the internet was becoming an increasingly popular source of information for prospective students with web visitor numbers rising from 5215 in 2003, the first year such figures were taken, to more than 21,000 this year.

"We had the web information available earlier this year, and that also seems to have increased awareness of the event," she said.

Monash Open Day director Professor Rob Willis said the success of this year's Open Day was a credit to the Open Day committee.

"The committee ran like a well-oiled machine and the university entertained an increased number of visitors to our Victorian campuses," he said.

"It is to the great credit of the volunteer staff and students that the wider community enjoyed such a positive experience."