Tertiary sport events - Ngā kaupapa hākinakina kura wānanga

Compete against other New Zealand students in your favourite sport, including virtual sports.

Rugby player being lifted to reach the ball, by fellow team players

Massey University sends teams to compete in different National Tertiary Championship and Tertiary Challenge events throughout the year. These student sports tournaments include 15 physical sports and 4 virtual sports.

Tertiary sport events take place around New Zealand throughout the year. National or regional sporting organisations run most of the competitions for their own sports. The independent University and Tertiary Sports New Zealand (UTSNZ) oversees the tournaments. The venues and dates usually change every year.

You don’t need to be an elite athlete to take part. And if you’re selected, you can compete in more than one sport.

National Tertiary Championships

Each year, New Zealand universities and some other tertiary institutions take part in the National Tertiary Championships. The institutions compete for the UTSNZ Tertiary Shield.

Each team that competes earns points for their institution. At the end of the year, the institution with the most points across all of the National Tertiary Championship events becomes the Tertiary Sport Champion. The Tertiary Sport Champion wins the UTSNZ Tertiary Shield.

You can register to take part in as many events as you like. See the table for sports, dates, team type and locations of sporting events in the 2025 National Tertiary Championships.

Table showing sporting events in the 2025 National Tertiary Championships
Sport Date Location
Rowing 3 to 4 April Lake Karapiro, Cambridge
Badminton 9 to 10 May Waikato Badminton Hall, Hamilton
3x3 Basketball 16 to 17 May Hiwa, University of Auckland, Auckland
Volleyball 11 to 12 July CET Arena, Palmerston North
Futsal 9 to 11 August Parakiore Recreation Centre, Christchurch
Ultimate 29 to 30 August Christchurch
5x5 Basketball 11 to 13 September Parakiore Recreation Centre, Christchurch
Netball 26 to 27 September AUT North Campus, Auckland

How to apply

Fill in an application form to take part in the competitions. You don't need to be an elite athlete to apply, just enthusiastic and committed.

Apply to play sport for Massey

To take part in a virtual challenge event, you usually sign up through social media. Follow us on our Facebook page so you can register to play when applications open.

Find out what’s going on

Follow Team Massey on Facebook to stay in the know about upcoming selection deadlines and tournaments, plus all the results. We also bring you highlights of the action as it happens!

Follow Team Massey @MasseySports on Facebook

Check out the results for previous years

Staff contact

Massey University Sport Coordinator Chris Sharrock

Phone

+64 6 356 9099 extension 83871

Location

Recreation and Sports Centre Manawatū

Related content

Sport & recreation centres

Each of our three campuses has a sport and recreation centre for use by Massey students, staff and the public – as members or with casual entry.

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Academy of Sport

We are the sport scholarship programme of choice for emerging and high performance athletes.

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