VUW Textbooks

Prescribed - the textbook your lecturer considers fundamental and specific to the course, buying and using this textbook will help you achieve academic success.

Recommended - the textbook your lecturer recommends for broader knowledge and understanding of the course material. Particularly consider buying this if you are taking this subject as a major.

Extra Reading - usually reference material which is subject specific, particularly useful in languages.

Student Notes - a selection of reading material chosen by the lecturer as directly relevant to the course, an essential purchase.

vicbooks stocks all prescribed and recommended textbooks and student notes for under-graduate and post-graduate courses at VUW. We have relationships with publishers and suppliers all over the world. We work closely with academic staff to source the correct edition at the best possible price. For that reason we order textbooks months in advance to take advantage of sea freight shipping which has a major impact on keeping the price of texts down, it also helps us to sustain a smaller carbon footprint.

In addition to prescribed and recommended textbooks and  we have a carefully selected range of reference and related titles which will help you achieve success.

You can create your own printable textbook list, including student notes by using our book search facility. You can search by course code, title, author and ISBN. Use this to ensure you are purchasing the correct textbooks and student notes online or bring it shopping with you.

Our books are loaded by trimester. This means in Trimester One only full year and first trimester texts will be available for purchase. Trimester two titles are confirmed and loaded around mid June and Summer trimester is loaded early November.

Purchasing is a great way to avoid queues at the beginning of trimester. You can choose to pay to have your textbooks and student  notes delivered anywhere in New Zealand or overseas or, if you are in Wellington, you can collect them from our stores at the Kelburn and Pipitea campuses. We also have a collection point at the Fuji Xerox Copy Centre at the Karori Campus.

During the first two weeks of trimesters one and two we run a temporary one-stop-shop in the Memorial Theatre Foyer on level one of the Student Union Building for all under-graduate textbooks and student notes. Post-graduate textbooks and student notes are available from the Kelburn store on level 3 of the Student Union Building. Our Pipitea store stocks all under-graduate and post-graduate textbooks, student notes and related reading for courses taught at the Pipitea Campus.

We try really hard to have all textbooks and student notes in store for the start of trimester however this is not always possible. If you use our online shop to purchase an item that is out of stock we will notify you of the date it is expected and place you in a priority queue to receive it as soon as it arrives in stock. If you don't wish to wait we are happy to refund purchases for out of stock items.

For course-related-cost information please see the StudyLink website.

If you require a quote for a Training Incentive Allowance please email our staff at Pipitea Enquiries or Kelburn Enquiries with your details and those of the courses you are taking and they will prepare one for you.

We are commited to bringing you the best prices on our textbooks that we can, check out our low price guarantee.

We buy and sell second hand textbooks for current VUW courses.

If you want to read more on a particular subject and we haven't got what you want in stock then our specialist book search is for you. If its in print we can get it. With her extensive supply network our Special orders manager will locate the titles you need and get them to you as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Lecturer textbook order form

Forget about the paperwork -  fill in the form, submit it and we will e-mail back with confirmation that it has been received. We need to receive your orders by the end of September for the following year to ensure that your textbooks arrive on time. If you have a query on a title or wish to get an inspection copy of a textbook that you are thinking of adopting please contact us.