Victoria University of Wellington — Attraction in North Island

Here’s my honest review after 4.5 years of study of why I give the uni 3/5 stars because it is overall not bad for New Zealand students.

The University itself lacked a lot during my time. In my time the student culture was pretty independent, you can expect o week and a several other related events at the most. Compared to universities overseas and to Auckland and maybe Otago I have heard that there is more to offer social wise. This might change in the future as the university is going through a huge debt (covid happened too), it seems the uni staff has been overwhelmed and has had poor leadership in the past years. (Coming from the law faculty we had a lot more events but these were essentially run by student groups).

However Wellington students are pretty cool. We have a pretty diverse range of young people both ethnically and academically. While outside of halls it can be hard to find friends the social environment is good once you find a group, also there are a decent amount of clubs at the uni.

Wellington as a city is quite the nice place to live. Its central and offers a pretty authentic kiwi culture with music, food, and cafes. Lots of beaches to explore, oriental bay is a amazing daily run, road trip to the South Island is on the cards, or head over to martinborough for the vineyards. If you live outside CBD it’s a 30 min train or drive which is not the worst. You can walk everywhere if you live in the CBD. The cons is that there’s no free parking in the city and it’s really expensive costs of living, but I guess so is Auckland. Once you land a decent job it’s definitely enjoyable otherwise expect government support and living paycheck to paycheck.

Renting can be a nightmare if you have never done so before and you are disadvantaged as a young student. You compete for pretty mid student flatting that is overpriced. Some landlords take advantage of your lack of knowledge. We call it character development.

Academic - we are known for our honours and research programmes which means if you have a strong academic performance or are interested in further study Vic might be a better fit. However saying that the uni is broke rn.

(I took law and arts) Choosing your courses can be a bit of a mixed bag and choosing blindly. Generally picking what sounds interesting to me and asking around has worked well. However I have had a decent share of courses that felt pretty dead and old fashioned. Where you get assigned lots of readings and go through tedious exercises. Speak up and ask questions if you go to lectures because why not, make the most of it!

Overall the uni life will feel like a place where you have the opportunity to live out some of the best nonchalant years of your life and a launch pad to becoming an adult/entering a graduate career all while you pay upwards of 20k-60k debt.

Was it worth...

What a shame this uni still experiments on live animals. Hard to believe.

Why cruel "scientists:" (vivisectionists) think drowning tiny creatures then snipping off their heads while they are still alive is somehow helpful to humans is baffling.

I strongly support science, but do not support this wasteful, lazy, anachronistic junk science being taught at this establishment.

Are unis so desperate for corporate dollars that they do useless experiments on defenceless creatures (of a different species no less) and delay any real progress in medicine?

Mice are not humans so any experiments on them (or any other non-human) are 100% irrelevant to humans, thus a complete waste of time and money.

I'd recommend selecting a more modern university that does not practice techniques from medieval times.

Primum nil...

I had expressed my interest to complete my masters programme in VUW in 2020. However, borders were closed and I was encouraged to pursue one of the modules online in 2021 before completing it in person (2022-2023).

I was constantly let down by the poor standards of communication from various departments of the school. Worst of all, the recommended module sabotaged my eligibility to receive a full time student visa. I could not continue pursuing my masters at a school that conveniently uses pandemic as an excuse to organise my studies poorly.

All staff of VUW should be trained to communicate more punctually, stop pushing responsibilities around and get their work done.

I paid for a “world class education” with my savings, time and emotions and what I received felt like...