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Kōrero: Tertiary education

First New Zealand university graduate

This is the University of Otago graduation certificate – in Latin – awarded to Alexander Watt Williamson, who in 1874 became the first person to graduate from a New Zealand university. He graduated with a bachelor of arts. Not long after this the University of Otago merged with the University of New Zealand.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Hocken Collections, University of Otago

Reference: S11-562

Permission of the Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, must be obtained before any re-use of this image. Further information may be obtained from the Library through its website.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Kerryn Pollock, Tertiary education – Universities before 1990, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/zoomify/34402/first-new-zealand-university-graduate (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Kerryn Pollock, i tāngia i te 29 May 2012.