Massey University

The New Zealand Agricultural College Act of 1926 laid the foundation for the sixth college of the University of New Zealand (UNZ). It allowed for the amalgamation of the agricultural schools of Victoria University College in Wellington and Auckland University College to establish the New Zealand Agricultural College.[7]

In 1927 the Massey Agricultural College Act was passed, renaming the college Massey Agricultural College[8] 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 Council 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 Minister of Agriculture Oswald Hawken.[9] The first woman to enrol was Enid Hills, who enrolled in 1932.[10]

With the demise of the UNZ in 1961, it became Massey College, and associated closer with Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) until full autonomy could be gained. In 1960 a branch of VUW, the Palmerston North University College (PNUC), was established in Palmerston North to teach humanities and social studies subjects as well as provide distance education, known then as extramural study. On 1 January 1963 PNUC amalgamated with Massey College to form Massey University College of Manawatu. The Massey University Act 1963 granted Massey full autonomy and university status with degree conferring powers from 1 January 1964, as well as a new name, Massey University of Manawatu. Its present name was adopted in 1966.[11][9]

Inaugurated with a tree planting ceremony in 1993, classes began at Massey's Albany campus that same year.[12]

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 Manawatū 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.[13]

The College of Health was launched in February 2013 [14] 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."[15] These remarks caused widespread outrage,[16] with Kelly's apology via Twitter and Facebook doing little to calm the situation.[17] Kelly resigned as Chancellor on 14 December 2016, and was replaced promptly by then Pro Chancellor Michael Ahie.[18]

In August 2018 Don Brash, a former Leader of the Opposition, was due to speak at the university following an invitation of the Massey University Politics Society. Citing security concerns, Jan Thomas, the Vice Chancellor of Massey University, canceled the booking the student society had made to use university facilities.[19] Thomas was widely criticised[20][21] and calls were made for her resignation.[22] The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern described canceling the event as an overreaction.[23] A review by Massey University's Council subsequently cleared Thomas of wrongdoing, with Chancellor Michael Ahie stating that the Council supported and had full confidence in Professor Thomas.[24] Massey University's Māori staff association Te Matawhānui publicly spoke out in support of Thomas, particularly due to her leadership of Massey as a te Tiriti-led university.[24]

Since 2020, Massey University has been using an artificial intelligence remote exam monitoring tool called Remote Proctor Now (RPNow).[25]

In 2023, Massey controversially proposed opening a campus in Singapore, aiming to have 5,000 students based offshore by 2026. The university’s plans to expand overseas while cutting jobs at home angered staff and students[26] at a time when significant cost cutting was taking place under Vice Chancellor Jan Thomas. The university reported a loss estimated at $50 million[27] as of October 2023, which had previously been reported as $33 million in September 2023 and at $14.2 million deficit in July 2023.[28] Cuts, including reducing staff numbers in the schools of Natural Sciences and Food and Advanced Technology by around 60 per cent, were described as 'brutal'[29] with RNZ reporting fears the plan puts the university into a death spiral.[30]

Graduates in Wellington

Massey University has campuses in Palmerston North in the Manawatū, in Wellington (in the suburb of Mt Cook) and on Auckland's North Shore in Albany. In addition, Massey offers most of its degrees extramurally within New Zealand and internationally. 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.

Manawatū campus

See also: Massey University, Palmerston North

Massey University was first established at the Turitea campus in Palmerston North, and hosts around 4,933 students annually.[31]

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, the College of Health and Massey Business School. It is also home to the only Veterinary School in New Zealand. Massey University acquired a smaller second campus in Palmerston North in Hokowhitu when it merged with the Palmerston North College of Education in 1996, which was combined with the existing Faculty of Education to form Massey University's College of Education. In 2013 the Institute of Education was formed as part of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The Hokowhitu Campus was later sold in 2016 after the institute was relocated to the Turitea campus.[32]

Wharerata, Palmerston North

Wharerata is a historic colonial home built in 1901 and surrounded by formal gardens and mature trees. It housed the staff social club until the late 1990s, and is now used as a cafe, function centre and wedding venue.[33]

In 2019, Heritage New Zealand listed student hostel, Colombo Hall as a category 2 historic place. It was built in 1964.[34]

In February 2023 the university announced that it would be building two solar farms on the Palmerston North campus, with a peak output of 7.87MW.[35]

Ōtehā Auckland campus

Part of Massey University's Albany Campus in 2005

Since 1993 the Ōtehā campus in Auckland 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 4,809 students are enrolled at Albany.[36] This campus has grown since then and an on-campus accommodation facility opened in semester one 2015.[37] On the Albany campus, a large golden chicken wing sculpture commemorates the site's history as a chicken farm.[38]

The governing body of Massey Agricultural College, and Massey College, was the Council (known as the Board of Governors, between 1938 and 1952). Massey University is governed by the University Council.[44] The council oversees the management and control of the university's affairs, concerns and property.[45]

The following table lists those who have held the position of Chair of the Board of Governors of the college and later Chancellor of the university, being the ceremonial head of the institution.

	Name	Portrait	Term
Chair of the Board of Governors
1	George Fowlds		1927–1934
2	William Perry		1934–1935
3	Thomas Hunter		1936–1938[46]
4	Arthur Morton		1938–1942
5	Grey Campbell		1943
6	Alan Candy		1944–1946
7	Gus Mansford		1947
8	Walter Dyer		1947–1959
9	Ned Holt		1960–1962[47]
Chancellor
1	Jack Andrews		1963–1966
2	Blair Tennent		1967–1970
3	Les Gandar		1970–1975
4	Arthur Ward		1976–1980
5	Lindsay Wallace		1981–1984
6	Doug Easton		1985–1990
7	Hugh Williams		1991–1997
8	Morva Croxson		1998–2002
9	Nigel Gould		2003–2008
10	Russ Ballard		2009–2013[48]
11	Chris Kelly		2013–2016[49]
12	Michael Ahie		2016–present

The following table lists those who have held the position of principal of the college and later vice-chancellor of the university, being the chief executive officer of the institution.

	Name	Portrait	Term
Principal
1	Geoffrey Peren		1927–1958[50]
1	Alan Stewart		1959–1963[51]
Vice-chancellor
1	Alan Stewart		1964–1983[52]
2	Neil Waters		1983–1995[53]
3	James McWha		1995–2002[54]
4	Judith Kinnear		2003–2008[55]
5	Steve Maharey		2008–2016[56]
6	Jan Thomas		2017–present[57]

• List of honorary doctors of Massey University

• History section of Massey University calendar
• Pictures from the past, in Massey News

OWENS, J.M.R. Campus Beyond the Walls: The First 25 Years of Massey University's Extramural Programme Palmerston North, Dunmore Press Ltd., 1985. (ISBN 0864690479) Available free from Massey at

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Massey University.

• Massey University's website

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