Our History

21 years young, Media Design School already has a history of global success.

Spark

Education Futurists

In 1998, Media Design School was established by Liz Valintine, in response to a global demand for skilled graduates in digital design and creative tech. The original programme offering was a collection of diplomas, with MDS becoming the first tertiary institution in the Southern Hemisphere to offer a dedicated programme of study for 3D animation.
Fork-Knights

Gaming Pioneers

MDS continued to blaze a trail in the creative tech education space as the first school in NZ to provide a specialised games course for aspirational game developers. To this day, MDS is the country's only school where students have the opportunity to develop games for the PlayStation platform.
Laureate

MDS Goes Global

In 2011 Media Design School joined the Laureate International Universities Network, one of the world's leading networks of higher education. This milestone marked a step onto the global stage and in the years since, the school has forged great relationships with prominent sister schools around the world.
MDS degrees

The First Degrees

2012 marked an evolution from MDS's offering of short and diploma-level courses, with the introduction of the school's first Bachelor Degrees. Formal accreditation was received from NZQA in late 2011, with the first students embarking on their Bachelor of Art and Design in February the following year.
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Design to Tech

Twenty years since its foundation, MDS is internationally regarded as a leader in design education, most notably in the growing fields of 3D Animation, Design and Game Development. 2019 saw a shift further into the Creative Tech space, with the launch of NZ's first Bachelor Degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing.

Global Network

Who is Laureate?

Laureate Education, Inc. is the largest international network of degree-granting higher education institutions, with more than 850,000 students enrolled at over 25 institutions with more than 150 campuses, which we collectively refer to as the Laureate International Universities network. Laureate offers high-quality, undergraduate, graduate and specialized degree programs in a wide range of academic disciplines that provide attractive employment prospects.

Laureate believes that when our students succeed, countries prosper and societies benefit. This belief is expressed through the company’s philosophy of being ‘Here for Good’ and is represented by its status as a certified B Corporation® and conversion in 2015 to a Delaware public benefit corporation, a new class of corporation committed to creating a positive impact on society.

More Info

At the centre of our vision is value, as defined by our students and those who employ them. Professionally oriented and in-demand degrees are delivered with an international perspective to help all Laureate students achieve a return in the global marketplace on their educational investment.

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Faculty Research