About UC Online

Tuihono UC | UC Online is the online learning division of the University of Canterbury. We're dedicated to providing high-quality online courses for students, professionals, and lifelong learners.

All our courses are specifically designed for online learning. They're flexible and accessible, making it easy to expand your learning and extend your professional skills

Our expert team of subject matter experts, education developers, student support advocates, and relationship managers work hard behind the scenes to create an effective, productive environment for all our learners.

Our history

Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury was established in 1873. It's Aotearoa New Zealand’s second oldest university. Since its establishment, UC has produced many graduates who have gone on to become world leaders in their fields. We're committed to continuing this tradition of excellence and to developing tomorrow’s leaders.

UC was set up on the Oxbridge model with one major difference – women students were admitted from the start. An early graduate, Helen Connon, became the first woman in the then British Empire to attain honours.

Housed in graceful stone buildings on a central city block, the College depended on rent from high country farms endowed by the Canterbury Provincial Council.

Ernest Rutherford, Canterbury’s most distinguished graduate, studied at the University in the 1890s. He discovered his scientific ability during a year of postgraduate research before taking up a scholarship in Cambridge. He went on to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry and in 1917 became the first person to split the atom.

Leader and politician Sir Apirana Ngata (Ngati Porou) was a contemporary of Rutherford and the first Māori graduate from an Aotearoa New Zealand university. Portraits of the two grace the country's $100 and $50 bank notes respectively.

Canterbury College was renamed Canterbury University College in 1933 before becoming the University of Canterbury in 1957.

For most of its first 100 years the University was situated in the centre of Ōtautahi Christchurch (now the Arts Centre). It moved to its current location in 1975 – a spacious, purpose-built 76-hectare site in the suburb of Ilam. The new university campus has a central complex of libraries, lecture theatres, laboratories, and student accommodation. It's surrounded by playing fields, woodlands, and the renowned Ilam Gardens.