Victoria University of Wellington

Victoria University of Wellington (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 (e.g. law, criminology, creative writing, architecture) is restricted. Victoria had the highest average research grade in the New Zealand Government's Performance-Based Research Fund exercise in 2012, having been ranked 4th in 2006 and 3rd in 2003. Victoria has been ranked 225th in the World's Top 500 universities by the QS World University Ranking(2010).

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 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. The original name was Victoria University College, but on the dissolution of the University of New Zealand in 1961 Victoria or "Vic" became the independent Victoria University of Wellington, conferring its own degrees.

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.

In 2004, Victoria University celebrated the 100th birthday of its first home, the Hunter Building.

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.

General information
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 Rutherford House, the restored Old 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. The University's newest facility, the Victoria University Coastal Ecology Laboratory supports research programmes in marine biology and coastal ecology on Wellington's rugged south coast.

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 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. BA in criminology and creative writing is also based on selection.

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

Victoria, in conjunction with Massey University, also owns the New Zealand School of Music.

Coat of Arms
The blazon for the arms of Victoria University of Wellington is: Vert on a fesse engrailed between three Crowns Or, a Canton Azure charged with four Estoilles Argent.

What this means: The colour of the shield is first described. Vert is green so the shield is green. A fess is a horizontal stripe across the shield and engrailed means the edges of the fess are wavy. The fess is between three crowns and or means gold so the crowns are golden. Conventionally with three objects two are placed above and one below, in this case, the fess. A canton is a square and azure is blue so a blue square is placed on the fess. An estoille is a star and argent is silver so there are four silver stars on the canton. These are supposed to represent the Southern Cross.

Crest: The crest sits above the shield and consists of a crown on which sits a lion rampant (facing left) holding a staff from which flies a banner with the cross of Saint George.

Supporters: These are a lion and a Māori figure.

Motto: "Sapientia magis auro desideranda" which may be translated as "Wisdom is more to be desired than gold".

The modern depiction: The Coat of Arms has been redesigned as a corporate logo and are depicted in monotone only and usually in green. The crest and scroll with the motto have disappeared and what was left has been stylised rather than being depicted in the traditional heraldic manner.

The Library
History

The Victoria University of Wellington Library was established in 1899. Today, the Library collections are dispersed over several sites including Central Library, Law Library, Education Library, Architecture and Design Library and Commerce Library. In recently years, while maintaining the traditions of print collections, the Library is developing its collection of digital resources with a focus on the acquisition of full text material online. In addition to electronic resources, printed books and journals, the Library also acquires works in microform, sound recordings, videos and other media consistent with the University's academic programme needs.

Collections

The University Library Service holds approximately 1.3 million printed volumes. The Library currently provide access to 70,000 print and electronic periodical titles and 200,000 e-books. It is an official Depository Library (DL-296) of the United Nations System (DEPOLIB), one of only three in the country. The J. C. Beaglehole Room is the official repository within the Library of all archival and manuscript material, and also provides a supervised research service for Rare Books, for fine or fragile print items, and for 'last resort' copies of University publications. The New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC) is a digital library of significant New Zealand and Pacific Island texts and materials. The collection is arranged according to the library of Congress classification system.

Library Cats

Between April 2003 and February 2010 the Library was home to two locally famous residents, Tessa Brown and Sandy Rankine a pair of very popular library cats.

Faculties and Schools
The university's faculties are: If you want to see a full list of schools, browse through an A-Z List of Schools
 * Faculty of Architecture and Design
 * Victoria Business School
 * Faculty of Education
 * Faculty of Engineering
 * Faculty of Graduate Research
 * Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
 * Faculty of Law
 * Faculty of Science
 * Toihuarewa - a separate pan-University Faculty equivalent

Research Centres and Institutes
Victoria University of Wellington has more than 40 research centres and institutes, including To see more, browse through an A-Z List of Research Centres and Institutes
 * MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
 * Malaghan Institute of Medical Research
 * Victoria University Coastal Ecology Laboratory
 * Centre for Strategic Studies New Zealand
 * Institute of Policy Studies
 * Adam Art Gallery
 * New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
 * Antarctic Research Centre

Students' Association, student media, and clubs

 * Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association
 * Salient (student magazine)
 * The VBC 88.3FM (student radio station)
 * Victoria University of Wellington Debating Society

Halls of Residence
Victoria University of Wellington Operated Halls
 * Boulcott Hall (Catered)
 * Joan Stevens Hall (Catered)
 * Weir House (Catered)
 * Willis St: Cumberland House (Catered)
 * Willis St: Education House (Self-catered)
 * University Hall: Te Kotahinga (Self-catered)
 * University Hall: Wai-te-ata Apartments (Self-catered)
 * University Hall: Aro Valley & Family Flats (Self-catered)
 * University Hall: Whānau Housing (Self-catered)

Privately Operated
 * Te Puni Village (Catered)
 * Victoria House (Catered)
 * Helen Lowry Hall (Catered)
 * Everton Hall (Self-catered)
 * Stafford House (Self-catered)

Notable academics

 * Dr James Belich, New Zealand historian
 * Dame Doreen Blumhardt, former WCE lecturer
 * Mai Chen, public law expert
 * Prof. Sir Paul Callaghan, Professor of Physical Sciences and the founding director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
 * Prof. Dame Margaret Clark, Professor of political science
 * Prof. Sir Lloyd Geering, cleric and founder of the Religious Studies department
 * Prof. Sir Frank Holmes, Emeritus Professor of Economics
 * Prof. George Edward Hughes, first Professor of Philosophy
 * Prof. Douglas Lilburn, late Professor of Music
 * Prof. Richard Cockburn Maclaurin, Foundation Professor of Mathematics 1899-1907 then President of MIT
 * Prof. Bill Manhire, author, poet
 * Prof. Paul Morris, Professor of Religious Studies
 * Prof. Peter Munz, Professor of History
 * Terence O'Brien, former diplomat, founder of Centre for Strategic Studies
 * Sir Tipene O'Regan, Māori leader, former WCE lecturer
 * Prof. Vincent O'Sullivan, Emeritus Professor, poet
 * The Rt Hon. Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former New Zealand Prime Minister
 * Dr Matthew Palmer, former Dean of Law School, son of Sir Geoffrey Palmer above
 * The Rt Hon. Sir Ivor Richardson, Member of the Privy Council, former President of the Court of Appeal, former Dean of Law School
 * Prof. Kim Sterelny, Professor of Philosophy
 * Teresia Teaiwa, Senior Lecturer of Pacific Studies, author, poet
 * Prof. Matt Visser, Specialist in general relativity

Notable alumni


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