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Victoria University of Wellington

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Victoria University of Wellington, also known in Māori as Te Whare Wānanga o te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui, was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses as well. Entry to all courses at first year is open, although entry to second year in some programmes (eg, law, architecture) is restricted. Victoria had the third highest average research grade in the New Zealand Government's 2003 Performance-Based Research Fund exercise.

Victoria University of Wellington
Te Whare Wānanga o Te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui
Victoria University of Wellington shield
MottoSapientia magis auro desideranda (Wisdom is more to be desired than gold)
TypePublic
Established1897
ChancellorTim Beaglehole
Vice-ChancellorPat Walsh
Students20,380 total
Postgraduates4,200 graduate
Location
Wellington
,
New Zealand
Websitewww.vuw.ac.nz
Map
File:VUW.jpg
Victoria University's Kelburn Campus.

General information

Victoria has 20,380 students (including some 3,400 international students), of whom 14,000 are undergraduates. It has around 1,900 full-time equivalent staff.

Its main campus is in Kelburn, a suburb on a hill overlooking the Wellington central business district, where its administration and humanities & social science and science faculties are based. The law and commerce and administration faculties are in the Pipitea Campus, near Parliament Buildings, which consists of the Rutherford Building, the restored Government Buildings, and the West Wing of the Wellington Railway Station. A smaller campus in the Te Aro district of Wellington is the base for the architecture and design schools. The Faculty of Education is in the Karori campus.

Day-to-day governance is in the hands of the University Council, which consists of 20 people: five elected by the Court of Convocation, three elected by the academic staff, one elected by the general staff, two appointed by the student union executive, four appointed by the Minister of Education, four selected by the Council itself, and the Vice-Chancellor. The Court of Convocation is composed of all graduates who choose to participate.

For New Zealand residents to entry to most courses is open, with a few exceptions. Performance Music requires an audition. There is selection for entry into the second year in degrees such as the LLB, BArch and BDes.

The University is one of only three institutions (University of Auckland and Unitec New Zealand being the others) to offer a degree in Architecture in New Zealand.

Victoria in conjunction with Massey University also governs The New Zealand School of Music

 
Victoria University's Pipitea Campus: Rutherford House with the Beehive in front and the Railway Station behind.

History

Victoria is named after Queen Victoria, as 1897 was the 60th anniversary of her coronation. There was initially a dispute as to where to site it, and it opened in temporary facilities in Thorndon. It was eventually decided to place it in Kelburn, where it still has its primary campus. This decision was influenced by the Cable Car company's offer of a donation [1] of £1000 if Victoria were located in Kelburn so students would patronise the car between the city and the University. The foundation stone of the historic Hunter Building was laid in 1904. On the dissolution of the University of New Zealand in 1961 Victoria became the independent Victoria University of Wellington, conferring its own degrees.

 
Hunter Building east entrance

An extramural branch of Victoria was founded at Palmerston North in 1960. It merged with Massey College on 1 January 1963. The merged college itself, having become a branch of Victoria upon the University of New Zealand's 1961 demise, became an independent Massey University on 1 January 1964. [2]

In recent years, Victoria has had to expand out of its original campus in Kelburn, and new campuses have been set up in Te Aro (architecture and design), Pipitea (opposite Parliament, housing the law, and commerce and administration schools) and Karori (education) - the Wellington College of Education, established in 1880, merged with the University to become its revived Faculty of Education on 1 January 2005.

Faculties

The university's faculties are:

Undergraduate Degrees Offered

Postgraduate Degrees offered

Victoria offers more than 25 Master's degrees in around 100 specialist subject areas, including:

Institutions

Notable Alumni

 
Graduation Ceremony, May 2005

Of either the university and college of education:

Notable Academics

Of either the university and college of education:

Panorama

 
Panorama of the view from the fifth floor stairwell of the Cotton Building, Kelburn Campus.
 
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