University of New Zealand

The former University of New Zealand existed as New Zealand's only degree awarding university from 1870 to 1961. It had a federal structure based on that of the University of London. It was based at the Senate House on Bowen Street in Wellington, New Zealand.

History

The University of New Zealand Act set up the University in 1870.

The Universities Act of 1961 dissolved the university and granted degree-conferring powers to the constituent Colleges.

The University of Otago negotiated to keep its full university status when it joined the University of New Zealand in 1874, however, it agreed to award degrees of the University of New Zealand.

The New Zealand Vice-Chancellor's Committee assumed certain administrative functions exercised by the University Grants Committee which in turn assumed some functions of the University of New Zealand on its demise.

Entrance to the University

The University used to set its own entrance examination and also used to award scholarships to financially assist study. When the university was dissolved matters concerning entrance to New Zealand universities became the responsibility of the Universities Entrance Board, a subcommittee of the University Grants Committee. The Universities Entrance Board was in turn amalgamated into the New Zealand Qualifications Authority in 1990.

Te Wa-nanga o Aotearoa

For a while, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, a wānanga (a type of New Zealand educational institution), had been calling itself the University of New Zealand as its English translation. This institution has no connection with the former University. The confusion stems from the translation from the Maori language to English.

Eventually, after legal concerns and objections from regulatory bodies (including the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee—a group of university heads, and the Ministry of Education] over illegal use of a protected word (in this case, university) and thus possible misleading advertising, the effective co-branding of the wānanga was phased out.

This institution is formally registered as a wānanga (one of four types of Crown-owned tertiary institutions under New Zealand law—the others being universities, colleges of education and polytechnics), and is to be regarded as such.

Colleges

College	Affiliated
Canterbury	1873	Website
University of Otago	1874	Website
Auckland	1883	Website
Victoria	1899	Website
Canterbury Agricultural	?	Website
Massey Agricultural	?	Website

Notes

Names of colleges, and affiliation dates for Canterbury, Auckland and Victoria per McLintock, 1966. Link: affiliation date for Otago.
Universities formed after the dissolution of the University of New Zealand are Waikato (1964) and AUT (2000).
Various other institutions such as secondary schools were affiliated to the University during the University's early life.

References

External links

(See the list above for the websites of the former constituent colleges)