Massey University (Māori: Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa) is one of New Zealand's largest universities with approximately 36,000 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). 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.

The University of Auckland (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau) is New Zealand's largest university and the top-ranked New Zealand university in the THE-QS World University Rankings. Established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand, the university is now made up of eight faculties over six campuses, and has more than 39,000 students at April 2006.[3] Over 1300 doctoral candidates were enrolled at the University of Auckland in 2004.

It offers a wide range of programmes including Arts, Business, Education, Music, Teacher Training and Special Education, Architecture, Planning, Nursing, Creative and Performing Arts, Theology, Science, Information Management, Engineering, Pharmacy, Medicine, Optometry, Food and Wine Science, Property, Law, Fine and Visual Arts.

The University of Canterbury (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation Cantuar. or Cant. for Cantuariensis, the Latin name for Canterbury), New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It offers degrees in Arts, Commerce, Education (physical education), Engineering, Fine Arts, Forestry, Law, Music, Social Work, Speech and Language Therapy, Science, Sports Coaching and Teaching.

The University of Otago (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo) in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 20,000 students enrolled during 2006.

The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it employs. It topped the New Zealand Performance Based Research Fund evaluation in 2006.

The University of Waikato (informally Waikato University, or simply Waikato) (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato) is located in Hamilton and Tauranga, New Zealand, and was established in 1964. It has strengths across a broad range of subject areas, particularly its degrees in Computer Science and in Management. Its School of Māori and Pacific Development is acknowledged as the world centre for study in this subject area.

In 2007, over 12,000 students were enrolled at the university. More than a quarter of students were aged over 25, and over half were women. It has the highest proportion of Māori students on any campus in New Zealand. The Māori character of the campus is an important aspect of its overall identity.

Victoria has 22,270 students (including 2547 international students), of whom 14,590 are full-time equivalent (EFTS) undergraduates. It has 1,884 full-time equivalent staff.

Its main campus is in Kelburn, a suburb on a hill overlooking the Wellington central business district, where its administration and humanities & social science and science faculties are based. The law and commerce and administration faculties are in the Pipitea Campus,[6] near Parliament Buildings, which consists of Rutherford House, the restored Government Buildings, and the West Wing of the Wellington Railway Station. A smaller campus in the Te Aro[7] district of Wellington is the base for the architecture and design schools. The Faculty of Education is in the Karori campus. The University's newest facility, the Victoria University Coastal Ecology Laboratory supports research programmes in marine biology and coastal ecology on Wellington's rugged south coast.

Auckland University of Technology is New Zealand’s fastest growing university with research and degrees that reflect and inform our changing world.

Lincoln University (Māori: Te Whare Wanaka o Aoraki) is a New Zealand university that was formed in 1990 when Lincoln College, Canterbury was made independent of the University of Canterbury. Its undergraduate study areas include agriculture, commerce, computing, engineering, environment, food, forestry, horticulture, hospitality, landscape, Māori planning, property, recreation, sciences, transport and winemaking.

Lincoln University has a student population from more than 60 countries[2]. Its primary campus is situated on 50ha of land located about 15 km outside the city of Christchurch in Lincoln, Canterbury.