The Victoria University of Wellington () is a public university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, and offers a broad range of other courses. Entry to all courses at first year is open, and entry to second year in some programmes (e.g. law, criminology, creative writing, architecture, engineering) is restricted. Victoria had the highest average research grade in the New Zealand Government's Performance Based Research Fund exercise in both 2012 and 2018, having been ranked 4th in 2006 and 3rd in 2003. Victoria has been ranked 215th in the World's Top 500 universities by the QS World University Rankings (2020). History Victoria University of Wellington (originally known as Victoria University College) was founded in 1897, named after Queen Victoria, on the 60th anniversary of her coronation. The original name was Victoria University College, but on the dissolution of the University of New Zealand in 1961 Victoria or "Vic" became the Victoria University of Wellington, conferring its own degrees. Early history and colonial politics In 1868, the colonial government of New Zealand passed the University Endowment Act of 1868, which established scholarship programs for study in the home islands of Great Britain, in addition to setting aside a land endowment in the burgeoning colony itself. The following year, with wealth generated from the Otago Gold Rush in addition to a strong foundation of the Scottish Enlightenment, the provincial government of Otago proceeded to lay the groundwork to establish the University of Otago. This was followed by the creation of Canterbury College, associated with the newly formed University of New Zealand. In 1878, a royal commission was appointed to review the state of higher education in the country. It recommended the establishment of a federal system of four university colleges, established in Auckland and Wellington, in addition to the integration of the University of Otago and Canterbury College. The colonial government moved to provide sites, statutory grants and land endowments. This was somewhat delayed after the state of recession caused by the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank in the same year, leading to a contraction in credit from Great Britain, and specifically London, the centre of global finance at the time. Nevertheless, in 1882, parliament passed