Massey University

Key facts

From 2008 Annual Report:

History

The New Zealand Agricultural College Act of 1926 established the sixth college of the University of New Zealand (UNZ) at Turitea, across the Manawatu River from Palmerston North City. It drew from the agriculture departments of Victoria University College in Wellington and Auckland University College.

In 1927 the college was renamed Massey Agricultural College after former New Zealand Prime Minister William Fergusson Massey who died in 1925 and had been vigorous in land reform efforts. The Massey Agricultural College Committee first met on 1 February 1927 and the Batchelar property, near the present Turitea site, was purchased that June. The college was officially opened for tuition on 20 March 1928 by O. J. Hawkin. Women were admitted from 1932, with Enid Hills being the first.

With the demise of the UNZ in 1961, it became Massey College, part of Victoria University of Wellington (VUW). In 1960 a branch of VUW was established in Palmerston North to teach students by distance education, known as extramural study. In 1963 this branch amalgamated with Massey College to form Massey University College of Manawatu, and on 25 September, the Massey University Act 1963 made it an independent university as Massey University of Manawatu, with its present name being adopted in 1966.

Inaugurated in 1993, classes began at Massey's Albany campus in 1994.

In December 2010 Massey announced that the Wellington campus would close its School of Engineering and Advanced Technology the next month. Students were offered places at either the Albany or Manawatu campuses with compensation, but those who could not make the move and chose to undertake their degree elsewhere were given no compensation, and only a few papers were able to be cross-credited.

The College of Health was launched in February 2013 with three broad goals: promoting health and wellbeing, disease and injury prevention and protecting people and communities from environmental risks to health.

In December 2016, the Chancellor of the University, Chris Kelly, caused outrage by making several comments in a rural newspaper regarding the gender of those in the veterinarian profession. While outlining changes that were being made to the structure of the University's veterinarian and agricultural degrees, Kelly said that more women passed the first year of the veterinarian degree "because women mature earlier than men, work hard and pass. Whereas men find out about booze and all sorts of crazy things during their first year... That’s fine, but the problem is one woman graduate is equivalent to two-fifths of a full-time equivalent vet throughout her life because she gets married and has a family, which is normal." These remarks caused widespread outrage, with Kelly's apology via Twitter and Facebook doing little to calm the situation. Kelly resigned as Chancellor on 14 December 2016, and was replaced promptly by then Pro Chancellor Michael Ahie.

Campuses

Massey University has campuses in the Manawatu at Palmerston North, at Wellington (in the suburb of Mt Cook) and on Auckland's North Shore at Albany. In addition, Massey offers most of its degrees extramurally within New Zealand and internationally. It has the nation's largest business college. Research is undertaken on all three campuses.

New Zealand's first satellite, KiwiSAT is currently being designed and built by New Zealand Radio Amateurs with the support of Massey, especially in space environment testing.

Manawatu Campus

The Manawatu campus in Palmerston North is based at the Turitea site. The campus has around 9,000 students.

The Turitea site houses the main administrative units of Massey University as well as the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Sciences, and the Business School. The Turitea site is home to the only Veterinary School in New Zealand. In 2013 the College of Education became the Institute of Education and is part of College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

In 2016, Massey University sold its Palmerston North-based Hokowhitu Campus.

Albany Campus

Since 1993 the Auckland campus in Albany has grown rapidly in a fast developing part of Auckland's North Shore City. Science and Business are the two largest colleges on the campus with the College of Science housing the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study solely on the campus. Around 7,000 students are enrolled at Albany. This campus has grown since then and an on-campus accommodation facility opened in semester one 2015.

Wellington Campus

In 1999 the Wellington campus was created through the acquisition of the Wellington Polytechnic. Part of Massey Wellington sits inside the New Zealand Dominion Museum building. The Wellington campus primarily specializes in Design (College of Creative Arts), Nursing, and Communication and Journalism. It has over 4,000 students.

Extramural

Extramural study first began in 1960 and Massey University is New Zealand's largest and pre-eminent provider of distance education. Massey is known for its flexible learning and innovative delivery options and this tradition continues in the use of elearning.

The University is currently embarking on a major project to further digitise its distance delivery and has recently adopted Moodle (branded as Stream) as its new Learning Management System (LMS).

Governance

Massey Agricultural College, then Massey College, and then Massey University were governed by a board of governors, and now by the University Council.

Chairmen of the Board of Governors

Chancellors

Politicians

Sportspeople

Others

Notable faculty

Notable faculty, past or present, include:

Massey University Students' Association

The Massey University Students' Association (MUSA) represents the student bodies at Massey University. It includes Manawatahi, the Albany Students' Association (ASA), Te Waka o Ngā Ākonga Māori, the Massey at Wellington Students Association (MAWSA), and the Massey Extramural Students' Society (EXMSS). It organises student events, publicises student issues, administers student facilities and assists affiliated student clubs and societies, and is affiliated with the StudentCard discount card Student Job Search and University Sport New Zealand.

The Albany Students' Association, incorporated in 1998, represents students at Albany campus. It is the only student association in Auckland with full membership of the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations. The ASA operates Evolution Bar and runs annual events like the first semester Orientation festival, second semester Winterfest, Woman's fest, Political Awareness Day and Boys Will Be Boys event. It previously published the fortnightly Satellite Magazine, which was awarded second for best small publication in the 2006 ASPA awards. In 2012 the magazine was replaced with a cross campus magazine called Massive.

The Palmerston North arm of the student association operates Radio Control, a student radio station based on the Turitea campus. It broadcasts on 99.4 FM, transmitting from an aerial on campus, and streams online. The station was founded in 1981 as 'Masskeradio' and has also been known as 'Radio Massey'. Radio Control's long-time station mascot Gordon the Dinosaur stood to become the Palmerston North MP, promising to build a moving walkway from the city centre to the university campus.

The station is run by paid staff and volunteers, with general interest shows between 07:00 and 19:00, and specialist local music and genre-based shows at night. Radio Control is funded by NZ on Air and the university and regularly hosts live events and broadcasts from various events both on and off the Massey University campus. It has also provided an early platform for New Zealand artists like Benny Tipene, Avalanche City and Evermore.