Massey University

Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington is part of Massey University. The roots go back to 1886 with the founding of the Wellington School of Design, making us Aotearoa New Zealand’s oldest creative arts school. The school also offers Aotearoa New Zealand’s most comprehensive range of creative arts degrees across our three schools: Ngā Pae Māhutonga Wellington School of Design; Whiti o Rehua School of Art and Te Rewa o Puanga School of Music and Screen Arts, with world-class facilities underpinning our internationally acclaimed degrees in Design, Māori Visual Arts, Fine Arts, Commercial Music and Screen Arts. In a first for Aotearoa tertiary education, Toi Rauwahairangi also offers a Mātauranga Toi Māori major, which engages te ao Māori within a creative practice pathway. 

With an excellent reputation for innovative creative arts research and practice, Toi Rauwhārangi ranked 1st for design and visual art research in the most recent New Zealand government Performance Based Research Funding round, and placed 2nd in the Asia and Pacific region in the 2024 Red Dot Design Ranking (our 10th consecutive year the in the top three and the only NZ school to feature in the top 5). We are the top-ranked art and design school in New Zealand in the international QS rankings. 

Undergraduate study

At undergraduate level we offer our well-established and industry recognised four year honours degrees—BDes (hons); BFA (hons); BSA (hons) and CCM (Hons)—with an optional three year degree exit point. You can also transition from our undergraduate degree straight into a postgraduate Masters degree at year four. 

In Design we offer specialisms in visual communication design (including pathways in graphic design, illustration, interaction design, branding, experience design and typography); spatial design; industrial and product design; concept design; photography; textile design; fashion design and an innovative integrated design major that allows the combination of two design majors creating an interdisciplinary approach to practice. Our Commercial Music and Screen Arts majors include music technology; music practice; music industry; factual and documentary production; film production; game development; visual effects; animation and immersive media.

Postgraduate study

At the Masters level, your study can be strongly disciplinary-focussed or span fields and knowledge systems. We offer 12-18 month Master of Design, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Commercial Music and Master of Screen Arts as 180 credit programmes, where the first 60 credits of your learning includes taught components (studio, research methodologies, and an elective of your choosing), followed by a 120 credit thesis to develop and showcase your creative practice research. We also offer a 2-year Master of Māori Visual Arts, and a PhD programme in which you will develop a sustained piece of advanced research work in a creative arts discipline. Find out more at https://creative.massey.ac.nz/postgraduate/.