Auckland Technical School opens in a former cabinet making factory in Rutland Street with 137 students enrolled for night classes in vocational education and the trades.
George George is appointed the school’s first director.
1902 — Staff of the first technical classes at Auckland Technical School
1902 — George George, Auckland Technical School’s first Director, in his Rutland Street office.
In a triumph for colonial education, the school scores more exam passes than any of the larger technical schools in London.
Expansion plans forge ahead with the purchase of land in Wellesley Street East.
A day technical school opens. The institution is renamed Auckland Technical College.
Minister of Education James Allen formally opens the institution with the new name of Seddon Memorial Technical College, in remembrance of the Premier and Minister of Education, Richard Seddon.
Following 20 years as director, George George resigns. His successor George Park is appointed. At the time there were 1683 students enrolled.
Seddon Memorial Technical College is now the largest school in New Zealand, with 4,212 students, 59 full-time staff and 93 part-time staff.
George Park retires. Horace Scott is appointed principal and the college introduces a senior business course.
1946 — Horace Scott appointed third Principal of Seddon Memorial Technical College.
Training is provided to overseas students for the first time. Under the Colombo Plan, the institute takes trainee trades teachers for a year from countries such as Malaysia, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Thailand and Borneo as well as the Pacific region.
cience students, under the guidance of Ron Waddell, make a television broadcast from a transmitter, three years before television is available in New Zealand homes.
1957 — Staff and students of Seddon Memorial Technical College examine the features of a new internal combustion engine, presented to them by the Auckland Garage Proprietors’ Association.
A carpentry training scheme for Māori youth is introduced in association with the Department of Māori Affairs. It is the first so-called ‘sandwich’ course to be introduced, with trainees alternating between the college and construction sites during the two-year training period.
Horace Scott resigns.
The college separates into two institutions — a technical high school and a technical institute, both under the same board of managers. Roderick Keir is appointed to lead the technical institute and Sidney Lee as principal of the technical high school. The Department of Education heralds the move as a “major turning point in the history of New Zealand’s technical education system”.
1961 — A Block, now the University’s main administration building, under construction.
The technical division is renamed the Auckland Technical Institute (ATI) and, under the Education Amendment Act 1963, is officially recognised as offering advanced vocational education.
1963 — Seddon Memorial Technical College
The technical high school division is relocated to Western Springs, where it eventually becomes Western Springs College. ATI remains on the City site with its own boards of governors.
Technical institutes are the fastest growing sector in tertiary education, with ATI leading the way by introducing the country’s first full-time technicians’ course – the New Zealand Certificate in Engineering.
1965 — The new six-storey A Block
Cyril Maloy is appointed principal.
K Block opens to accommodate plumbing, welding and automotive classes, catering for 315 full-time students. It is the first building in New Zealand specifically designed for use as a technical institute.
Ivan Moses is appointed principal, with 800 full-time students enrolled.
ATI has nine departments within four newly established schools: Engineering, Science, Arts and Commerce.
ATI is recognised as the country’s largest technical institute and, in a privilege rarely granted outside Great Britain, gains the right to run The City and Guilds of London Institute’s most advanced cookery course.
A fifth school opens at ATI: the School of Health and Biological Science.
ATI’s second satellite, Carrington Technical Institute, opens in Mount Albert. Both Carrington and Manukau break away to form new independent technical institutes, now known as Unitec Institute of Technology and Manukau Institute of Technology.
ATI runs its first Māoritanga course, covering oral fluency, values and culture.
Health science courses are transferred to ATI’s new campus at the former North Shore Teachers’ Training College in Northcote, which officially becomes Akoranga Campus in 1985.
ATI is able to offer students on-screen computer experience for the first time following government funding for computer equipment in technical institutes.
The Commerce department is split into three separate departments: Accountancy and Law, Management Studies and Secretarial Studies. More than 300 full-time tutors are now employed across ATI.