The Massey Agricultural College Council first met on 1 February 1927, and the Batchelar property, near the present Turitea site, was purchased that June.

[16][14] Inaugurated with a tree planting ceremony in 1993, classes began at Massey's Albany campus that same year.

[17] In December 2010 Massey announced that the Wellington campus would close its School of Engineering and Advanced Technology the next month.

In December 2016, the Chancellor of the university, Chris Kelly, caused outrage by making several comments in a rural newspaper regarding the gender of those in the veterinarian profession.

[30] In 2023, Massey controversially proposed opening a campus in Singapore, aiming to have 5,000 students based offshore by 2026.

[33] Cuts, including reducing staff numbers in the schools of Natural Sciences and Food and Advanced Technology by around 60 per cent, were described as 'brutal'[34] with Radio New Zealand reporting fears the plan puts the university into a death spiral.

[35] On 14 December 2023, Massey University confirmed that it would lay off over 60 jobs at its College of Sciences as part of a restructure.

[36] On 18 December, Massey confirmed that it was planning to sell or lease NZ$151 million worth of property on its three campuses to address its financial problems.

"At the AMSAT-ZL Annual General Meeting in June, 2023 the group officially decided to dissolve and abandon plans for a luanch [sic] campaign.

[41] Massey University was first established at the Turitea campus in Palmerston North, and hosts around 4,933 students annually.

[44] In 2019, Heritage New Zealand listed student hostel, Colombo Hall as a category 2 historic place.

[45] In February 2023 the university announced that it would be building two solar farms on the Palmerston North campus, with a peak output of 7.87MW.

[48] The Pukeahu campus primarily specialises in Design (College of Creative Arts), Nursing and Communication and Journalism.

[39] Extramural study first began in 1960 and Massey University is New Zealand's largest and pre-eminent provider of distance education.

In the mid-2010s, the university embarked on a major project to further digitise its distance delivery and in 2015 adopted Moodle (branded as Stream) as its new Learning Management System (LMS).

[55] The following table lists those who have held the position of Chair of the Board of Governors of the college and later Chancellor of the university, being the ceremonial head of the institution.

The following table lists those who have held the position of principal of the college and later vice-chancellor of the university, being the chief executive officer of the institution.

[76] Massey's Bachelor of Aviation (Air Transport Pilot) is the first non-engineering degree to be recognised by the Royal Aeronautical Society (1998).

Te Tire Ahu Pae (TTAP) is the single association at Massey University's four campuses in Pāmamao – Distance, Ōtehā – Auckland, Manawatū – Palmerston North and Pukeahu – Wellington.

Campus Beyond the Walls: The First 25 Years of Massey University's Extramural Programme Palmerston North, Dunmore Press Ltd., 1985.