Vice-Chancellor to receive Wellington welcome

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Vice-Chancellor to receive Wellington welcome

Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey will be welcomed to the Wellington campus tomorrow (Friday) at Kuratini Marae.

Massey's Wellington Regional Chief Executive Professor Andrea McIlroy says she is looking forward to working with Mr Maharey and embracing the future plans and energy he brings.

“The University has adopted a new strategy with a goal that in 2020 Massey will be acknowledged as New Zealand’s defining university. The Wellington campus will have a key role in achieving this,” she says.

Mr Maharey was welcomed to the Albany campus last week, and yesterday officially opened the new University head office and greeted more than 400 guests including tangata whenua, Ministers and MPs, Emeritus Professors and 300 staff at a celebration on the Manawatu campus.

Mr Maharey says the development of University House, drawing all the senior managers together and creating a base for the University’s national operations, was deliberate.

“What we have done is to distinguish between roles with a national responsibility and those with a responsibility for a campus. Massey is a national university with multiple campuses. Providing leadership at University House more clearly delineates the fact those management roles cover the whole University, not just Manawatu, by providing a front door to the University that is distinct from the front door to the campus."


Mr Maharey outlined his vision for Massey as New Zealand’s defining university, echoing the University’s first Vice-Chancellor Sir Allan Stewart and his assertion that Massey was change-embracing, innovative and forward-looking. This would continue, Mr Maharey said, Massey supporting New Zealand’s transformation. Quality terms Massey would embrace included excellent, first, innovative, connected, opportunity, collegial and autonomy. One area to be addressed first was that of responsibility, with Massey leading in sustainable development.

Mr Maharey also outlined the vision for each of the University’s campuses: Albany would have a comprehensive range of courses with a focus on innovation and the new economy; Wellington would continue as a more niche education provider with strengths in creativity and design, while Manawatu would draw from its roots in agriculture and science to maximise its role at the centre of New Zealand’s food industry. “This is a stunning university,” Mr Maharey said. “It has the most wonderful staff and I have not stopped being amazed at the quality of people and the quality of the things they are doing. We are going to make it even better.”

EDNS

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