Massey University ([Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is one of New Zealand's largest universities, with approximately 34,000 students, 16,000 of whom are extramural students.^[2]

The University has campuses in Palmerston North (sites at Turitea and Hokowhitu), Wellington (in the suburb of Mount Cook) and Auckland (at Albany), with the largest in terms of student numbers being the Turitea site. 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.

Massey University is the only university in New Zealand offering degrees in aviation, dispute resolution, veterinary medicine and nanoscience. Having been accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association, Massey's veterinary school now has the distinction of having its degree recognised not only by New Zealand, but also the United States, Australia, Canada, and Britain, as well as most other countries in the world.

Key facts

From 2008 Annual Report^[3]

• $374 Million Operating Revenue
• $57 Million external Research and Contract Funding
• 3127 Staff (Full-Time Equivalent)
• 33,905 Students (19,432 EFTS)
• 27251 Undergraduate Students (15,070 EFTS)
• 7212 Postgraduate Students (3,428 EFTS)
• 1046 Doctorate Students (934 EFTS)
• 112 Doctoral Completions
• 3384 Māori Students
• 895 Pasifika Students
• 2447 Students with Disability
• 2 National Centres of Research Excellence (and numerous University-based Research Centres)
• Hosts the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence
• The University has almost 100 formal academic arrangements with overseas institutions
• Massey is the 10th largest user of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in New Zealand

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} Women were admitted from 1932, with Enid Hills being the first.^[4]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[5]

Coat of Arms

The Blazon for the Massey University arms is: Gyronny of ten argent and azure a mullet gules fimbriated argent and irradiated or and for the crest on a wreath of the colours issuant from flames proper a ram's head argent horned and ensigned by the horns of the African long-legged ram all or.

Motto 'Floreat Scientia', which means, 'Let knowledge flourish'.

What the Blazon means. The shield is the first part described. “Gyronny” means that the shield is divided by a number of equally spaced radial lines, in this case ten, to create ten segments. These are coloured alternatively Silver (argent) or white as it is normally drawn, and blue (azure.) Then the object(s) on the shield are described. A mullet is a five pointed star and gules is red. Fimbriated means that the star is edged and the colour of the edging is silver. The whole star is shown with rays (irradiated) all around and these rays are coloured ‘or’ which is gold, or yellow as often drawn.

The crest is the part above the helmet. The helmet and the mantling are normally not part of the blazon and are left to the artist to depict. The wreath of the colours is the twist of material above the helmet and the colours are those of the shield, i.e. blue and white. On the wreath are flames and proper means they are shown in their natural colours. On the flames is a ram’s head coloured silver (argent.) The head has its normal horn and additionally horns from the African long-legged ram. These horns are all coloured gold (or.) No supporters are included in this Coat of Arms but sometimes faux supporters made of the mantling are shown in some representations of these Arms. Also the arms are often depicted in monotone or duotone rather than full colour.

Locations

Massey University has campuses in the Manawatu at Palmerston North (sites at Turitea and Hokowhitu), 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.

Massey University is the only university in New Zealand offering degrees in aviation, dispute resolution, and veterinary medicine. Having been accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association, Massey veterinary school now has the distinction of having its degree recognised not only by New Zealand, but also the United States, Australia, Canada, and Britain, as well as most other countries in the world. This is an honour shared by only a handful of other institutions.

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 consists of two locations at Turitea and Hokowhitu. The campus has around 9,000 students.^[6]

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 College of Business. The Turitea site is home to the only Veterinary School in New Zealand. The Hokowhitu site is home to the College of Education.

Albany Campus

In 1993 the Auckland campus in Albany was created and has grown rapidly in a fast developing part of Auckland's North Shore City. The Albany campus is the only campus to house departments from all five of the University's Colleges. Science and Business are the two largest colleges on the campus with the College of Science housing the Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, and the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study solely on the campus. Around 7,000 students are enrolled at Albany.^[7]

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) and Music (New Zealand School of Music), and has around 4,000 students.^[8]

Extramural

Extramural study first began in 1960 and Massey University is New Zealand's largest and pre-eminent provider of distance education.^[9] 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).^[10][11] Massey was also the lead developer of the Mahara eportfolio system and is committed to using new technologies to support lifelong learning.^{[citation needed]}

Notable alumni

Politicians

• Paula Bennett (BA, social policy)
• Ashraf Choudhary (PhD, agronomy)
• Brian Connell (history and geography)
• Wyatt Creech (agriculture)
• Peter Dunne (business administration)
• Nathan Guy (agriculture)
• Pete Hodgson (BVSc, veterinary science)
• Steven Joyce (BSc, zoology)
• John Luxton (BAgSci and Dip. Ag Science)
• Steve Maharey (MA, sociology)
• Tony Ryall (BBS and Dip. Business Studies)
• Nicky Wagner (MBA)

Sportspeople

• Rico Gear (Rugby Union)
• Scott Talbot-Cameron
• Farah Palmer (Black Ferns)
• Graham Henry (All Blacks)
• Paul Hitchcock (Black Caps)

Others

• Kay Cohen - fashion designer
• Robert Holmes à Court - businessman (BAgSci, forestry)
• Alan Kirton - agricultural scientist (BAgrSc and MAgSc)
• Simon Moutter - engineer, businessman (BSc, physics)
• Phil Lamason - WWII RNZAF pilot.^[12]
• Craig Norgate - businessman
• Sir Alan Stewart - founding vice-chancellor of Massey
• Richard Taylor - special effects technician
• Stephen Tindall - businessman

Notable faculty

Notable faculty, past or present include:

• Kingsley Baird
• Brian Carpenter
• Kerry Chamberlain
• Ashraf Choudhary
• Shane Cotton
• John Dunmore
• Usha Haley
• Craig Harrison (writer)
• Joel Hayward
• John Stuart Yeates
• Hugh Kawharu
• Steve Maharey
• Caroline Miller (planner)
• David Officer
• W. H. Oliver
• Farah Palmer
• David Parry
• Geoffrey Sylvester Peren
• Peter Schwerdtfeger
• Lockwood Smith
• David Stenhouse
• Marilyn Waring
• Paul Callaghan
• Stuart McCutcheon - (University of Auckland) Vice-Chancellor

Massey University Students' Association

The Massey University Students' Association (MUSA) represents the student bodies at Massey University. MUSA has three representatives to the Massey University's governing body, the Massey University Council.

Constituent Members

• Manawatahi
• Albany Students' Association (ASA)
• Te Waka o Ngā Ākonga Māori
• Massey at Wellington Students Association (MAWSA) http://www.mawsa.org.nz/
• [Massey Extramural Students' Society (EXMSS)]http://www.exmss.org.nz

Massey University School of Aviation

Massey University School of Aviation is an educational institute which forms part of the College of Business. It provides flight instruction together with a university degree to prospective airplane pilots (i.e. fixed wing professional pilots) as well as a degree in aviation management to those students who want to work in other areas of aviation. The School of Aviation also caters for postgraduate education with a postgraduate diploma, masters and PhD.

2006 mid-air collision

On 9 February 2006, two students at the School - Brandon James Gedge, 20, from Tauranga, and Dae Jin Hwang, 27, from West Auckland - both flying Piper Warrior II (PA-28-161) trainer aircraft, registrations ZK-MBD and ZK-MBL, were killed in a mid-air collision over Opiki, 18 km southwest of Palmerston North, at 9:47 am.^[13] The aircraft crashed on to farm land, spreading debris over a 500 square metre area. The CAA found the accident's cause was neither pilot seeing the other aircraft due to blind spots in both aircraft, with one climbing directly towards the sun.^[14] The Square Trust Rescue Helicopter was forced to take evasive action several minutes before the collision, when one of the accident aircraft turned into its path.^[15] As a result of the accident, special procedures were set up in the Southern Training Area airspace south of Palmerston North.^[16]

Notes

References

• 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 [1]

External links

• Massey University's website

40°23′05″S 175°37′00″E / 40.3848°S 175.6166°E / -40.3848; 175.6166