Engagement that deepens relevance, impact, and reputation 

Whanaungatanga—we grow meaningful and long-lasting relationships that benefit our university communities and beyond.

Victoria University of Wellington builds trusted and enduring partnerships with alumni, benefactors, and communities both in Wellington and overseas in keeping with our essence as a global–civic university with our marae at our heart. We have a carefully selected portfolio of partnerships that contribute to, and substantiate, our distinctiveness.

Effective engagement with government, public service, the diplomatic community, and non-governmental organisations is at the heart of our emphasis on governing for the future. Other communities of particular importance include those in the creative and cultural sector, in line with our emphasis on creative impact.

We continue to strengthen our taihonoa partnerships with iwi and iwi-related organisations in support of our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and closely engage with Pasifika groups to deliver more equitable outcomes.

Businesses, professions, and other employers increasingly seek out our graduates. Work-integrated learning and enriching teaching with practitioner perspectives are central features of our curriculum. We support our communities through non-degree teaching for lifelong learning and through applied research and consultancy. Entrepreneurial engagement to develop new research questions and co-create meaningful innovative economic, social, cultural, and environmental ambitions is commonplace.

We provide a sought-after destination for philanthropic investment by offering donors the opportunity to partner with a university that addresses pressing societal issues.

Outstanding communication of the University’s values, distinctiveness, academic quality, and accomplishments strengthens our reputation and attractiveness to students, staff, and partners. It enables our research and scholarship to deliver transformative societal outcomes.

Our public commentary on the issues of the day is increasingly prominent and sought after by national and international media outlets. We value our roles as the ‘public intellectual’, ‘critic and conscience’, and ‘critical friend’, knowing when to use each of these roles to best effect.

By 2025, the effectiveness of our engagement will have:

  • resulted in advocacy scores reaching 75 percent or above on surveys of domestic stakeholders, with detractors remaining at less than 2 percent
  • helped lift the University to rank within the top 1 percent of the world’s universities and within the top 100 universities in at least 20 subject areas of particular relevance to our position as Aotearoa New Zealand’s globally ranked capital city university
  • resulted in a successful fundraising campaign of $150 million by 2021.