Curtin’s Vice Chancellor Harlene Hayne has praised the staff and student volunteers who made this Sunday’s Open Day the biggest since 2019, estimating over 20,000 attendees.

This year’s event was the university’s first Open Day to be free of restrictions since the global pandemic, and it utilised as much space as it could with marquees spread up, down, and around Sir Charles Court Promenade.

From 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, Harlene and the volunteers were out in force and, while wearing their black and yellow t-shirts, could be easily spotted amongst the masses.

“It feels like we are back to better than normal” she said, and “as you can see the campus is absolutely packed.”

Curtin’s Chief Strategy Officer Marko Schultheis said this year’s event was bigger than 2019’s, then added “it’s thanks to the 450 – 500 volunteers, made of up students, staff and even some of their spouses.”

The day was full to the brim with activities, including booths for over a hundred different subjects, tours of the campus and each faculty, games, and an increased selection of food trucks. There was also the ever popular “free stuff”, which this year came in the forms of popcorn and fairy floss. A crowd pleaser to be sure.

Dr Schultheis said the commitment of some of the academic volunteers who decided to stay for another shift in the afternoon showed the passion they had for their courses.

This commitment did not go unnoticed by the prospective students and their parents either.

Stephanie, a year 12 student from Batemen, said even though she’s leaning towards health science, she was still impressed by the passion from the volunteers of each faculty.

However, not all the people manning the subject-booths were volunteers. Student Recruitment Officer Scott Mills was one of many SRO’s who were paid for their time to speak to prospective students at Open Day.

The third-year education and screen art student said he talked about his experiences during his time at Curtin, and what he learned rather than the specifics of the course as everyone will take different units.

“That’s the beauty of a Curtin degree, everyone’s different and you hardly ever meet someone doing the exact same course as you” Scott said.