Università della Svizzera italiana

The New Zealand Agricultural College Act of 1926 established the sixth college of the University of New Zealand (UNZ) at Turitea, across the Manawatu River from Palmerston North City. It drew from the agriculture departments of Victoria University College in Wellington and Auckland University College.

In 1927 the college was renamed Massey Agricultural College after former New Zealand Prime Minister William Fergusson Massey, who died in 1925 and had been vigorous in land reform efforts. The Massey Agricultural College Committee first met on 1 February 1927, and the Batchelar property, near the present Turitea site, was purchased that June. The college was officially opened for tuition on 20 March 1928 by O. J. Hawkin.[citation needed] Women were admitted from 1932, with Enid Hills being the first.

USI is active in several studies and research areas: architecture, communication sciences, computational science, data science, economics, health studies, humanities, informatics, law, medicine, biomedicine. The university is organized in five Departments (Faculties), located on three campuses. The Faculties of Economics, of Communication, Culture and Society, of Informatics and of Biomedical Sciences are located on the Lugano campus, home also to the Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano, a private institution affiliated with the Diocese of the Catholic Church in Lugano. The Accademia di architettura is located on the Mendrisio campus. The affiliated Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) and the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) are both located in Bellinzona.