Victoria University of Wellington: Difference between revisions
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Victoria University is also home to the [[McDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology]]. In late 2003, it was announced that the [[Malaghan Institute of Medical Research]] would move to the university's Kelburn campus. |
Victoria University is also home to the [[McDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology]]. In late 2003, it was announced that the [[Malaghan Institute of Medical Research]] would move to the university's Kelburn campus. |
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The quality of education that the university has been providing has been steadily degraded by the cancer of managerialism, a result of merciless neo-liberal restructuring of the mid 80s and 1990s. Today students are known as education 'consumers', education becoming another victim of the degeneracy of the fetish of the cash nexus. The students in general are a fairly apathteic lot, prefering to consume drugs and other commodities than to overly strain their minds, with many exhibiting that strange blank look often associated with cell-phone overexposure. A buregoning foreign student population is exploited as a cash cow, and either ignored by their (predominantly Pakeha middle class) peers or treated as an object, behind their back of course, of derision ('bloody rich immigrants').The once proud instituion pumps out semi-literate commerce graduates, rewarding mediocrity with a piece of paper and a massive student debt. Other departments (especially in the humanities) are crippled by chronic underfunding, and high student to teacher ratios because their research is not considered 'economically viable' resulting in poor morale amongst teachers and post-graduates. Despite these problems, their are a number of world class academics at Victoria producing exciting work, while the burgeoning cultural and night-life of Wellington means that it is an increasingly popular destination for student-consumers wishing to exercise their 'choice' in the education market. |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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Revision as of 01:13, 18 November 2003
Victoria University of Wellington is the oldest university in Wellington, New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programs in law, humanities, and certain scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses as well.
The university was established in 1897 by an Act of Parliament. It was named after Queen Victoria, as 1897 was the sixtieth anniversary of her coronation. There was initially dispute as to where to site the university, and it initially opened in temporary facilities. It was eventually decided to place it in Kelburn, where it still has its primary campus. The university's historic Hunter Building was opened in 1904.
Gradually, the university expanded its facilities, its courses, and its student body. It presently has around 16,500 students (including around 2000 students who came to study at the university from other countries). It has around 1,500 staff.
Its main campus is located on the hill of Kelburn, above the Wellington central business district, where its commerce, law and design faculties have campuses. A smaller campus in the Te Aro region of Wellington serves as a base for the architecture and design schools.
Some degrees and papers in the fields of teaching and education are jointly taught with the Wellington College of Education, located in the suburb of Karori. It was agreed in 2003 that the College of Education would become a campus of the university.
Victoria University is also home to the McDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. In late 2003, it was announced that the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research would move to the university's Kelburn campus.