Year 12 students who are considering taking a break from study in 2018 can find out how to make the most of their gap year during a special session at USC’s Open Day on Sunday 23 July.

A panel discussion on ‘Is a gap year a good idea?’ will be just one of many activities on offer at Open Day, which is expected to attract thousands of prospective students and their families from across the Sunshine Coast and further afield.

The forum will look at what needs to be considered when planning a gap year, including how to save money, build skills, and gain information about career options. It will feature sound advice from a Finance academic and the mother of successful gap-year takers.

A current student will also speak about USC’s Study Overseas program, which enables students to spend some time at one of 70 partner institutions around the world while earning credit towards a degree.

Open Day will be held from 9.30am to 2pm at USC’s Sippy Downs campus and will have the theme ‘First year starts here’. It is aimed at giving students the information and tools they need to make the most of their first year at uni.

Visitors will be able to inspect the campus, get questions answered, and learn more about the study programs they’re interested in by chatting one-on-one with USC academics.

They can sit in on real lectures across a wide range of disciplines to see what uni life is like, and attend information sessions that outline study programs and career opportunities.

There will also be other panel discussions that will focus on: careers that are likely to be in demand in the future; how to support a child, partner or friend when they start university; and how USC’s High Performance Student Athlete Program works.

While USC has combined its Open Day with a family fun day called Imaginarium in recent years, this year it will provide a separate community event on campus in August as part of the Sunshine Coast Council’s Horizon Festival of Arts and Culture.

USC will be the venue for Arboria luminarium – a monumental pneumatic walk-in sculpture dedicated to the theme of ‘trees’.

— Terry Walsh