Fanshawe College will welcome prospective students and their families to its Spring Open House on March 29 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. across all its campuses, including London, Simcoe, St. Thomas, Woodstock, Clinton, and Tiverton. The event offers a chance to explore more than 250 programs, tour facilities, and engage with faculty and current students.

According to the Social Media Communications Officer at Fanshawe College, Sarah Wells, this Open House is significant as applications and acceptances for the 2025-26 academic year have been issued.

“For a lot of people, it’s an opportunity to look at Fanshawe and make a decision about what they want to study,” she said. “For our current students, it’s an opportunity, if they’re coming to the end of a program, maybe look and see if there’s a secondary program, they want to take to enhance their skills and development.”

Fanshawe hosts two Open House events annually, one in the fall and one in the spring. This year, the college is focusing on making the event more engaging, recognizing recent uncertainty in post-secondary education.

“We’ve done a lot of talk around education in Canada, so we really want to focus on what Fanshawe does best and really bring the fun to this event,” said Wells. “We’re going to have lots of hands-on experiences, we’re going to have high energy, we’re going to have our team…wandering around and sharing some swag and surprises. We’ll obviously have Freddie the Falcon on hand.”

Each campus will offer different experiences based on its program offerings.

“For example, Simcoe and Woodstock have skilled trades programs unique to those campuses,” Wells explained. “If there are students who maybe have been interested in those types of programs, they can’t see that at the London campus, so going to the Woodstock or St. Thomas campus is an opportunity to learn about those programs and see if that would be a good fit for them and get a vibe for those regional campuses.”

The Open House will also highlight student services. Two key sessions at Forwell Hall will focus on OSAP, financial aid, and entrance bursaries. Another will cover living on and off-campus, with information from Fanshawe’s residence team and off-campus housing manager Jason Galindo. The Kalihwíyo Circle Indigenous team will lead additional sessions and accessibility services, supporting students with disabilities and neurodivergence.

The event will also highlight accessibility services.

“For anyone who might want to look at how accessibility services can help them or support them throughout their education, a lot of students don’t necessarily realize that accessibility supports in colleges are a little bit more robust than maybe what they’ve experienced in prior education,” Wells said. “There are supports for mental neurodivergence, as well as the maybe more well-known accessibility needs that are physical or learning disability based.”

While registration is not mandatory, those who sign up and attend will be entered into a draw for one of five $1,000 prizes, which can be used for tuition or school supplies.

For more information or to register, visit Fanshawe College’s website.