Massey University

Massey University is a university based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with significant campuses in Albany and Wellington. Massey University has approximately 30,883 students, 13,796 of whom are extramural or distance-learning students, making it New Zealand's second largest university when not counting international students. Research is undertaken on all three campuses, and more than 3,000 international students from over 100 countries study at the university.

Massey University is the only university in New Zealand offering degrees in aviation, dispute resolution, veterinary medicine, and nanoscience. Massey's veterinary school is accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association and is recognised in the United States, Australia, Canada, and Britain. Its agriculture programme is the highest-ranked in New Zealand, and 19th in Quacquarelli Symonds' (QS) world university subject rankings. Massey's Bachelor of Aviation (Air Transport Pilot) is an internationally recognised and accredited qualification, is the first non-engineering degree to be recognised by the Royal Aeronautical Society (1998), and has ISO9001-2000 accreditation.

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.

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.