Our Campuses
A connected community
The University has been working towards a consolidated campus strategy which has involved the reshaping of the property portfolio, consolidating, and exiting poor quality leased properties. The University has three major City campuses in close proximity to each other.
City Campus
The City Campus is our largest campus and houses most of the faculties, central administration, the majority of undergraduate teaching facilities, and student facing services. Our student accommodation offers more beds than Auckland’s inner-city hotels combined.
Grafton Campus
The Grafton Campus houses the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and Liggins Institute.
Newmarket Campus
The Newmarket Campus houses research-centred activities, including heavy engineering research, science, and medical and health science research components. The campus is also home to 40 diverse spin-out and start-up businesses who appreciate the purpose-built research facilities, co-location and multi-use amenities to support its innovation mandate with the support of Auckland UniServices Limited. The Newmarket Campus is currently subject to developing plans with co-locators to catalyse the Innovation Precinct.
The City, Grafton and Newmarket Campuses are within walking distance of each other and well-connected by the public transport network.
Te Papa Ako o Tai Tokerau campus in Whangārei supports our Northland based students (two hours by car from the City Campus)
Te Papa Ako o Tai Tonga, is our physical presence in South Auckland reflecting our commitment to preparing and supporting students in this area. A 30-minute drive from the City Campus, many of our foundation programmes can be completed here.
The Leigh Marine Research centre and Institute of Marine Science is located at the Leigh Marine Reserve just north of Auckland.
Campus Development
The University developed the Estate Strategy 2021-2030 (Te Rautaki Tūāpapa) in 2021 which sets out the priorities for management and development of the Campuses.
The University’s capital works programme is one of the country’s largest construction programmes and is principally funded from University cash and depreciation. It covers investment in refurbishment, adaptive reuse, and several significant new buildings.
Hiwa, the University’s new Recreation Centre opened in February 2025 and is a 26,000sqm, eight-storey facility that spans the city block between Symonds Street and Princes Street in the heart of the City Campus. Hiwa recorded over 700,000 visits within the first 6 months of operation and is proving to be successful in student and staff recruitment, retention and wellbeing. It is a physical manifestation of the importance the University places on the holistic wellbeing of its student cohort; and is at the heart of a strategy to encourage student activation and engagement on-campus. Hiwa delivers a world-class range of recreation and wellness spaces including a rooftop multi-sport turf and social area with panoramic views of the city, the southern hemisphere’s first glass sports floor with integrated LED markings, and an aquatic hall with an eight-lane, 33-metre pool.
Opened in 2024 is the sustainability and architecturally award-winning 6 Green Star building, home to the Faculty of Arts and Education, Te Pūtahi Mātauranga (B201, 10 Symonds Street). Designed with the teaching and learning needs of the range of occupant faculties in mind, the nine-storey building includes a new soaring glass atrium, capped by a vaulted timber roof and solar photovoltaic panels. Among many other notable features, B201 boasts dance and drama studios, a brand new, flexible lecture theatre, state of the art teaching spaces, student study space, and archaeology wet labs. The design was developed collaboratively, and is an exemplar of environmental sustainability.
Tūtahi Tonu, tuākana of Waipapa Marae, was relocated to City Campus from our former campus in Epsom in 2024. The whakairo (carvings) of the wharenui were delicately refurbished by master carver Katz Maihi (Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Ngāpuhi) and placed in their new home. The whakairo reflects the diverse cultures that study at the University, creating a welcoming learning space.
In 2020, a purpose-built engineering building was opened (B405) to provide students with tailor-made spaces to support learning, accommodate larger student cohorts, and encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration. Within the same period, another major building was completed at Grafton Campus for the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, together with several new student halls of residence. The University now provides accommodation for circa 4,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in catered and self-catered residential communities.
Looking forward to the future
An adaptive reuse of the heritage-listed Old Choral Hall is scheduled for opening later this year (2025). The building, amongst the oldest on the campus, has been transformed to address seismic performance issues, aged and failing infrastructure, and has undergone a full refurbishment that will extend its usable life for another 50 years.
In 2025, we commenced a new building development, B230, that will provide additional high-quality amenity within the City Campus for both academic staff and students. The development of B230 will enable the Faculty of Law to exit the current poor-quality leased buildings in Sector 800 and move to a central City Campus location. B230 will incorporate a multi-purpose performing arts space, student study space, space for the Faculty of Arts and Education, as well as teaching and learning spaces. The building will be operational in 2029.
A recently signed partnership agreement with Precinct Properties Group will see a further 960 self-contained studio apartments become available in the nearby Carlaw Park Student Village in 2028.
A City Campus Masterplan (2025-2045) has been developed, as envisioned in the Estate Strategy and includes developments that will be the catalyst for further student-centred transformation of the City Campus.
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