This was somewhat delayed after the state of recession caused by the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank in the same year, leading to a contraction in credit from Great Britain, and specifically London, the centre of global finance at the time.

The growth of the population of Wellington, and the gradual improvement of the economy in the late 1880s were key factors in the final establishment of the college.

A prominent advocate of creation was Robert Stout, Premier of New Zealand and later Chief Justice, as well as a member of the university senate.

In June 1886, as Minister of Education, Stout signalled the governments intent of introducing a bill to establish a centre for higher learning in Wellington.

Being the centre of the colonial government, Stout cited the opportunity for the college to be able to particularly specialize in law, political science, and history.

Stout further suggested that the staff of the New Zealand Colonial Museum could provide services in the fields of geology and natural history.

In 1903, the college adopted a badge and coat of arms featuring three crowns, the stars of the southern cross and the crest of the namesake of Wellington.

The college appointed a fifth professor, in modern languages – selecting the Oxford educated Anglo-German George von Zedlitz.

The site was widely supported in Wellington, but release of the land for academic purposes was stalled by the Seddon Government.

Coincidentally, Pharazyn held a major financial interest in the then-under construction Kelburn – Karori Tramway (now known as the Wellington Cable Car).

The Tramway was completed the following year, and to this day transports students from the central business area of Lambton Quay, to the university via Salamanca Station.

The construction of a main building followed shortly after, designed by local architects F. Penty and E.M. Blake in the Gothic Revival style.

Following the end of the First World War, north and south wings were added to the building, providing new teaching areas, recreational spaces, and a new library.

Critics such as Victoria University law professor Geoff McLay criticised the name change for erasing 120 years of history.

By contrast, Chancellor Neil Paviour-Smith defended the outcome of the vote as "one decision in a much broader strategy to try and help the university really achieve its potential".

[25][26] On 6 May 2019 Victoria University's Council announced that it would not contest the Education Minister's decision to reject its name-change proposal.

The name change had received exceptionally strong opposition from faculty, alumni, students, and the Wellington City Council.

[30] In May 2023, Vice-chancellor Nic Smith confirmed that Victoria University was facing a NZ$33 million deficit due to declining student enrolments and a shortfall in government funding.

[33] In October 2023 Victoria University issued a request for proposal to sell 24 properties, worth about $16 million, to recover their deficits.

The centre offers access to work experience and connections with New Zealand's film, animation and game design industries.

In addition to electronic resources, printed books and journals, the Library also acquires works in microform, sound recordings, videos and other media consistent with the university's academic programme needs.

The J. C. Beaglehole Room is the official repository of all archival and manuscript material, and provides a supervised research service for Rare Books, for fine or fragile print items, and for 'last resort' copies of university publications.

In July 2015, Urban Perspectives Limited, on behalf of Victoria University, lodged an application with Wellington City Council to rezone the area from "Inner Residential Area" to "Institutional Precinct", remove the Flats from the City District Plan's heritage list, and amend the Institutional Precinct provisions of the District Plan.

This issue bought up wider debate on whether it was worth retaining mid-century public housing for heritage purposes, when the building in question had itself paid scant value towards the past.

In April 2016, a Wellington City Council panel approved the rezoning of the flats, allowing Victoria University to demolish the building.

[45] This data was then used to create a computer generated model of the flats, allowing for them to be explored in a virtual reality environment.

The area would then be used to create a gateway between the hilltop Kelburn campus, and the city below, including an outdoor plaza and new teaching and research facilities.

Charles Wilson, at the time the chief librarian of the parliamentary library, was a member of the original council and its chairman for two years.

In 2012 a Facebook page that is associated with Victoria University of Wellington students, Overheard @ Vic, was in the media for the many rape comments that were made.

[82][83] The opposition for this public lecture came about because of the soldiers' involvement in Operation Protective Edge, which is thought to have killed at least 2000 Palestinians, most of them civilians.