Textbooks and course notes

Find out what textbooks, student notes, and course materials you'll need for your courses—buy or order them in advance so you're ready for when classes start.

Finding your required textbooks and course materials

Your textbooks, student notes (compilations of selected readings), and other materials for your course are chosen by your lecturer. The items on the list that they set play a vital role in your learning and are an essential part of your study.

To find out what books, student notes, and course materials you need for your course, you can:

  • Check the course outline handout.
  • Look up the course in the course finder.
  • Search by course code or area of study on the Vic Books website.
  • Lecturers often use the Nuku system to share course materials and requirements for the courses they're teaching.

Where to get your textbooks and course materials

You can still purchase your textbooks and other course materials from Vic Books before it closes on 31 March 2023.

After that date, you can get all your course materials online from the Campus Books website. Campus Books will be our new provider of textbooks and University merchandise. Campus Books is a specialist textbooks operator which also provides services to Waikato, Massey, and Lincoln universities. They will occupy part of the current Vic Books space and will begin operations on campus from Monday 24 April, when classes start again after the mid-trimester break.

At this stage, Campus Books is not opening a branch at the Pipitea campus. Students who cannot easily access Kelburn campus should use the Campus Books website.

The Lab, a much-loved and well-established food spot on our campuses, will be opening a new outlet in a portion of the space left by Vic Books. You can find out more about this change on our Food and drink webpage.

Key dates

  • Friday 24 March — Vic Books café closes
  • Monday 27 March–Monday 3 April — No café operating on the Vic Books Kelburn site
  • Friday 31 March — Vic Books bookstore closes
  • Monday 3 April — The Lab cafe opens in the former Vic Books café space
  • Monday 3 April–Sunday 23 April — The area currently used as the Vic Books bookstore will be closed for internal fit-out
  • Monday 24 April — Campus Books opens for onsite purchases

Related links