Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand

Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand.

It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, and offers a broad range of other courses. Entry to all courses at first year is open, and 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.[5] Victoria has been ranked 265th in the World's Top 500 universities by the QS World University Rankings 2013.

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 it were located in Kelburn so students would patronise the Cable Car from the city.[7] 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 Victoria University of Wellington, conferring its own degrees.

An extramural branch was founded at Palmerston North in 1960. It merged with Massey College on 1 January 1963. Having become a branch of Victoria upon the University of New Zealand's 1961 demise, the merged college became Massey University on 1 January 1964.[8]

In 2004, Victoria 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 business school) 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.