Opening of the Victoria University Hub

To view images from the opening, click here

E te Tumuaki Ian McKinnon, e ngā Tumuaki Tuarua Pat Walsh, me Te Toiahurei Piri Sciascia, e ngā kaiako me ngā tauira o Te Whare Wānanga o Te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui, tēnā koutou.   E harikoa ana ahau ki te haere mai ki te whakapuare i tēnei whare hou.  Kia ora tātou katoa.

Chancellor Ian McKinnon, Vice-Chancellor Professor Pat Walsh, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Māori) Professor Piri Sciascia; the staff and students of Victoria University, thank you for inviting me here today and warm greetings to you all.  I also acknowledge; Alistair Shaw, from the Victoria University Students’ Association Trust, Rory McCourt, President of the Victoria University Students' Association; and members of the Diplomatic Corps.

Today is a special day.  It is naturally special for Victoria University, the opening of the Hub and what its completion represents, and being here is also special for me.

Opening the Hub signals the near completion of a strategy to redevelop the Kelburn Campus that began in 2006.  The redevelopment has seen a new hall of residence, Te Puni Village, completed in 2009, quickly followed by the Alan MacDiarmid Building in 2010. 

So I begin my address by congratulating everyone who has been involved in bringing this project to fruition – your foresight, effort and commitment.  I acknowledge and applaud the significant support from the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association Trust.

The Hub is an amazing facility, boasting what I am told are the biggest sliding doors in the Southern Hemisphere.  With its combination of indoor and outdoor spaces and flow, it looks to be a comfortable place to meet friends or colleagues – definitely; to have lunch – probably; to buy a book – possibly; or to study – may be!  After more than a century of growth, the Hub provides a central focal point and anchor to the Kelburn Campus. 

When combined with the completed refurbishment of the Student Union Building, and continuing upgrade of the Library, it has given the Kelburn Campus a new and vibrant heart.

Opening the Hub is special for me because it continues a tradition established more than a century ago.  While this latest redevelopment has been underway for several years, the links between my office and this University reach back to its very beginning.

Governor, the Lord Plunket laid the foundation stone of the university’s first home - the iconic Hunter building - in 1904, and he returned two years later to open it.  In the years that followed, as Victoria spread across what was euphemistically described as “six vertical acres,” successive Governors-General have opened new facilities. 

Lord Bledisloe opened Weir House in 1933, Dame Catherine Tizard opened the Student Union Extension in 1992 and Victoria House in 1993, and Sir Michael Hardie Boys opened the Adam Art Gallery in 1999.  A few years later, reflecting Victoria’s growth both in Wellington and further afield, Dame Silvia Cartwright opened the downtown Pipitea Campus in 2004 and your facilities at the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam in 2005.

The final point I want to make is that the opening of a new building is always a cause for celebration.  In a physical sense, it marks the culmination of years of planning, design and construction.  However, this project represents more than just bricks, mortar and the smell of new paint and furnishings.  Those sensations will pass quickly.  What the Hub and the redevelopment on campus represent is something more enduring.

The Hub represents the University’s enduring commitment to playing a leading role in New Zealand’s future.  It represents a commitment to adding to our knowledge through research and teaching.  It represents a commitment to equipping its graduates with the leadership, communication and intellectual skills they need to effectively participate in our rapidly changing world. 

More than a century after its founding, Victoria University of Wellington has established a reputation as a research-led university with high standards of teaching and learning that attracts staff and students from around the world.  It is a community of more than 22,000 students and more than 2000 staff from many different cultures, nationalities and walks of life.  And as I have noted, it has expanded beyond Kelburn, to have campuses in Karori, Te Aro and Pipitea.  It has relationships with universities in New Zealand and around the world.  Those relationships include co-hosting the esteemed MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, and New Zealand’s leading independent biomedical research centre, the Malaghan Institute for Medical Research.

The Hub also represents Victoria’s commitment to Wellington.  A key part of what makes Victoria special is its capital-city location and the strong relationships it has forged with national arts and cultural organisations, Crown research institutes, the Public Service, Parliament, the Courts and the diplomatic corps.  The University is the capital’s 2nd largest employer.  The students who flock here every year add to the city’s colour, vibrancy and its economy.

To conclude, I would like to quote Lord Plunket’s remarks at the laying of the Hunter Building’s foundation stone 109 years ago.  He said it was the most important function he had attended since arriving a few months earlier, adding: “I will always remember with interest and pride that … I laid the first stone of Victoria College and I shall watch with undiminished interest its labours to extend useful knowledge and sound learning throughout … New Zealand.”

And so, with equal pride in being here today, and with equal interest in the future endeavours of this University, it gives me great pleasure to declare the Hub officially open.

Kia ora huihui tātou katoa.