Finding Theses
Massey University Theses
The Library holds either a borrowing or digital/electronic copy of every Masters and Doctoral thesis completed at Massey University. You can locate them by searching the Classic Library Catalogue using one of the following techniques:
- If you know the name of the person who wrote the thesis, search by Author.
- If you know the title of the thesis, search by Title
If you are looking for theses on a particular subject, use an Encore search, typing in relevant keywords such as your area of interest followed by Massey (if you want only Massey University theses) e.g. "small business Massey". On the results screen you can refine the search choosing Thesis under Format on the left-hand side.
If you need assistance please contact us; go to More Contact Details.
A growing number of Massey University theses are available in full text electronically through Massey Research Online.
Note: Information to help with the preparation of a thesis is available from Guide to the Presentation of Theses.
Theses From Other New Zealand Universities
Kiwi Research Information Service is a website that provides access to research documents produced at universities, polytechnics and other research institutes throughout New Zealand. You can use this website to look for specific titles or authors and browse the research in various ways.
New Zealand Educational Theses Database - Access to full text theses on education, developed by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research ( this is a work in progress).
You may also find it helpful to search the New Zealand Libraries' Catalogue using a keyword search, search Other Libraries or please feel free to Ask a Question or contact us for help in constructing your search.
NOTE: If you wish to obtain theses not held by Massey University, please submit an Interlibrary Loan form (you will need to log in to access this form). There is a charge of $5 for this service. Theses from New Zealand institutions are for use only at one of the Massey University Libraries; not available for loan.
Overseas Theses
The following are multidisciplinary resources for tracking down overseas theses. Some of the sites below will provide the electronic full text of a thesis.
DiVA portal - Nordic Universities Academic Archive On-line is a finding tool for research publications and student theses written at 24 universities and colleges of higher education in Europe.
EThoS - the British Library Electronic Theses Online Service that aims to provide users with full-text access to electronically stored UK theses. You will need to register to be able to order your required thesis. Many are available for immediate download, others you will need to request. Not all theses have been digitised so there may be delays while this is done. A few institutions charge for digitisation, but most are free. You will receive an email when your order is ready to download.
Google Scholar - may provide a link to the full text of a thesis. Especially useful if you know the title(or some words from the title) and author.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses - Contains over 2 million thesis citations from institutions in North America and Europe. Most entries also contain an abstract and a 24-page preview.
Proquest Dissertations and Theses UK and Ireland - Includes the entire bibliographic record of dissertations written in the United Kingdom and Ireland from 1716.
Theses Canada -search Canadian theses written after 1965, and access the full text of Canadian theses submitted to the Theses Canada program after August 1998.
Trove - Trove (National Library of Australia) contains a million theses. Some are in print format only, others are available online in digital format.
First type in your search terms and hit search. Select ‘theses’ from the list of otions on the left-hand side. You can change the ‘Sort by’ option to Date (latest first) to view the most recently published theses.
There is further assistance available from Help on finding Australian theses
Wageningen Dissertation Abstracts - This database contains bibliographic descriptions of all Wageningen University PhD theses from 1918 onwards. It is updated on a daily basis.
NOTE: If you wish to obtain a thesis from an overseas institution, that is not held by Massey University, please submit an Interlibrary Loan form (you will need to log in to access this form).
We will attempt to borrow a thesis from anywhere in the world for the standard $5 Interlibrary loan fee; however, when the cost is greater than US$30.00 we will usually ask requesters to make a contribution to the cost.
