Massey University

Massey University was founded on 1 January 1964 when it was officially constituted as a fully autonomous university with the right to confer its own degrees.

The university has campuses in three cities in the North Island (Auckland, Palmerston North and Wellington) and the largest university distance education programme in the country.

A number of forerunner institutions contributed to the university’s character and traditions. These predecessors organisations were:

• Massey Agricultural College (1927-1962)
• Palmerston North University College (1960-1962)
• Palmerston North College of Education (1956-1996)
• Wellington Polytechnic (1886-1999)

The university’s direct forerunner, the Massey University College of Manawatu, came into being on 1 January 1963 through the amalgamation of Massey College (as the Massey Agricultural College was known by then) and the Palmerston North University College.

A year later the institution was awarded university status. In terms of the Massey University of Manawatu Act 1963, Massey University was officially constituted on 1 January 1964 as a fully autonomous university with a right to confer its own degrees. An amendment to the Act, shortening the name to Massey University, was passed in 1966.

The university's governing body is the University Council. Its Chair and ceremonial head of the university is the Chancellor. The chief executive officer of the university is the Vice-Chancellor. The Academic Board is the chief decision making body for academic matters. The university's teaching and research side is organised into several colleges, or faculties as they were know up to 1998. The administrative side of the university is organised into various offices and sections or departments.

Some of the erstwhile faculties were established in the days of the Massey Agricultural College and some in the years immediately preceding 1964. The majority were established in the years after. By the early 1990s, there were nine faculties:  Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Technology, Science, Veterinary Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Business Studies, Education, and Information and Mathematical Sciences.

Changes in the 1990s saw the University’s faculties being amalgamated in 1996 and 1997 into four colleges: Education, Business, Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences. After the amalgamation with the Wellington Polytechnic in 1999, another college was added to this list, Design, Fine Arts and Music (in 2005 renamed, Creative Arts). In 2012 and 2013 this college structure again changed to Business, Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Creative Arts, and Health.

Massey University fully owns a number of subsidiaries. These include Massey University Foundation, Massey Ventures Ltd, Estendart Ltd, and e-centre Ltd.