The $70 million Ngā Huia building is the final part of a $160m upgrade to vet school facilities. Photo: RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
The final stage of a $160 million revamp to New Zealand's only vet training school is complete.
At Massey University's Palmerston North campus on Thursday new building Ngā Huia officially opened its doors.
It's home to state-of-the-art research labs and student facilities for the 750 aspiring vets undergoing their five-year degrees.
Massey vice-chancellor Jan Thomas said it was a "critical piece of national infrastructure".
The university paid for the upgrade, which included the opening of a new teaching building three years ago.
The previous quake-prone vet tower at the university was demolished. It was built in the early 1970s, not long after the vet school opened.
Universities minister Dr Shane Reti compared today's facilities with what was available when the school opened. Photo: RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
"Massey's come a long way since 1963 when the inaugural class of 32 veterinary students began their studies in the Bernard Chambers vet clinic and WWII army mess hubs," universities minister Dr Shane Reti said at the building's opening.
"Since then Massey has produced thousands of bachelor of veterinary science graduates."
Two students who will themselves graduate in a couple of years are 21-year-old Charlotte Cotton and 20-year-old Ryan Smoothy. Both are completing their third year of study.
"It's really nice being in purpose-built spaces. We started after the old vet tower had been taken down so this is our first time having a big, specific place for vet [studies]," Cotton said.
"We've got our labs over in the other building, but it's really exciting having our own space now."
Ryan Smoothy and Charlotte Cotton are third-year vet students. Photo: RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
Getting into vet school is competitive - about 400 first-year students are whittled down to 175 to move through the degree.
Cotton said in third year students started looking at specific diseases and the medications used to treat them.
"We've progressed more towards understanding what's normal and how to deal with the abnormal," Smoothy said.
Both said they wanted to start in general practice before moving into a specialist area.
Vet school research not just about animals
Ngā Huia, which cost $70m, houses modern labs, replacing the previous spaces dating from the 1970s.
"Our research is really focused on delivering what the nation needs, particularly as an island, exporting nation," head of the school, professor Jon Huxley said.
"Our research strengths tend to be in areas such as epidemiology and food security, pathobiology and infection disease, and animal welfare."
Head of school professor Jon Huxley says the school has world-leading researchers. Photo: RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
The school's research went beyond animals, he said.
"Covid was a fantastic example.
"Covid started in animals then then transferred into Man, so of course having the expertise that crosses that space between animal disease and human disease is critically important.
"We've got some fabulous research staff that work in that space, both at a national and a global level."
The vet school is the top ranked one in Asia and Australasia, and is in the world's top 20 in the QS world university rankings.
But the new facilities are about more than academic performance alone.
Warren Warbrick used the huia as the cultural narrative for the building due to the extinct bird's nurturing nature. Photo: RNZ/Jimmy Ellingham
Warren Warbrick, of Rangitāne in Manawatū, was asked to develop a cultural narrative for the building's design features.
"During the research I found it hard because a lot of the narratives and concepts and ideas that are traditional are really to do with the eating, preservation or preserving of food, or killing of animals, skinning of animals and using their bits of piece for tools and all kinds of things," he said.
He came across the story of tupuna Tauto, who would communicate with huia - a bird with a nurturing nature.
"So, we've kind of used this nurturing concept to look at the way knowledge holders, or lecturers and teachers, nurture their students."
Staff are expected to start moving into the new labs next month and students will use the building from next year.
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