坎特伯雷大学位于新西兰的克赖斯特彻奇,成立于1873年,是新西兰成立较早大学之一。该校也是英联邦国家中第一所向女性授予荣誉学位的大学。
坎特伯雷大学拥有七个学院:艺术、商业、工程、法律、音乐与美术、林业、科学,共分38个系,该校有新西兰成立最早的工程学院,被认为是该国最好的工程学院,并且享有国际上的声誉。坎特伯雷大学拥有一流的设施与资源。图书馆系统包括新西兰南岛最大的综合性中心图书馆和四个专业图书馆,馆藏图书共计一百多万卷、册。该校有1900多名研究生。
著名校友欧内斯特•卢瑟福: 诺贝尔物理奖得主,被誉为原子物理之父。
When established in 1873, Canterbury College, as the University was originally known, was only the second university in New Zealand.
Ernest Rutherford, Canterbury’s most distinguished graduate, studied at the University in the 1890s. He discovered his own scientific ability during a year of postgraduate research before taking up a scholarship to Cambridge. A contemporary of Rutherford, Apirana Ngata of Ngati Porou, was the first Maori graduate from any New Zealand university. The portraits of these two men, respectively, grace the nation’s $100 and $50 bank notes.
For most of its first 100 years the University was situated in the centre of Christchurch (now the Arts Centre). By 1975 it had completed its move to a spacious purpose-built 76 hectare site in the suburb of Ilam, 7km from the old city site. It comprises a central complex of libraries, lecture theatres, laboratories and staff accommodation surrounded by playing fields, woodlands and the renowned Ilam Gardens. On 1 January 2007 the neighbouring Christchurch College of Education, the second oldest teachers' training college in New Zealand, merged with the University and became UC's sixth College/School.
Canterbury offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in some 50 disciplines, from accountancy to zoology. It has a number of specialist research centres and operates five major field stations at Kaikoura, Mt John (University Observatory), Cass, Westport and Harihari. Locally, six halls of residence provide board for up to 2000 students.
Some 12,000 students are enrolled and each year about 3000 students graduate, 650 of them with higher degrees. The University has retained links with the old town site, now home to the Christchurch Arts Centre, using it as the starting point for graduation processions each year.