“Business As Usual” OUSA Budget Dropped

Posted 10:10pm Saturday 4th October 2025 by Nina Brown

OUSA’s budget for 2026 has dropped. You might read “budget” and feel your eyes glaze over. But just as your budget is crucial to stretching StudyLink payments across keeping a roof over your head, avoiding scurvy, and storing away a little extra for barista-made treats or a box on Read more...

Polytech Proposes Switch To Telehealth Student Health Services

Posted 10:20pm Saturday 4th October 2025 by Hanna Varrs

On the 26th of September, the Otago Polytech advised kaimahi, ākonga, the Otago Polytech Students Association, stakeholders, and the media (except for Critic – we found out through a student) of a proposal to move to a telehealth set up for their student health provision for the 2026 Read more...

Government Announces ‘Bread and Butter’ Budget:

Posted 3:56pm Sunday 21st May 2023 by Annabelle Vaughan

(The Really Short Version) Last Thursday, the Government released Budget 2023: ‘Supporting for today, building for tomorrow’. Coming ahead of the general election in October, and amidst the ever-growing cost of living, Budget 2023 has avoided Big And Scary topics like Capital Gains Read more...

Uni Spent $3 Million on Travel in 2020

Posted 2:44am Sunday 8th May 2022 by Denzel Chung

Otago Uni spent almost $3 million on travel expenses in 2020, including airfares, accommodation, taxis and car rentals. While these numbers were significantly impacted by Covid-19, the Uni is hoping to keep air travel to a minimum even as borders reopen.  University data received by Critic Read more...

$9,000 from Dead Clubs to be Reappropriated by OUSA

Posted 5:43pm Friday 1st April 2022 by Denzel Chung

$9,000 from inactive clubs has been sitting in an OUSA bank account untouched for at least six years. This money will get redistributed, with $7,200 probably going back to Clubs & Socs. At an OUSA Exec Meeting on 24 March, Clubs & Socs Rep Tulsi Raman said the original idea behind the Read more...

What They Don't Teach You About Saving Money in a Flat

Posted 3:21pm Sunday 27th February 2022 by Oscar Moriarty

With each new year at Uni comes a new crop of students, all trying to navigate the potentially treacherous world of flatting for the first time. Flatting is expensive, as my grandchildren always tell me as they beg for handouts. As a third-generational stock broker on the NZX, I feel it is my Read more...

Budget Buzz Brokers Broke Breathas

Posted 11:22pm Sunday 23rd May 2021 by Elliot Weir

The government released their 2021 budget on Thursday, announcing the first meaningful benefit increases in decades, as well as increased spending on rail, Māori housing, Pharmac, and other areas. Amongst all the big numbers and dollar signs, there is some stuff for students to be excited Read more...

131,610 Standard Drinks Worth of Hand Sanitiser Bought by Uni in 2020

Posted 11:29pm Sunday 23rd May 2021 by Denzel Chung

The Uni spent almost $100,000 on hand sanitiser in 2020, according to figures obtained by Radio One. Despite Covid-19 restrictions having eased this year, they are on track to spend almost the same amount in 2021.  According to Property Services Manager Dean Macaulay, $98,128 was spent on Read more...

More Students Studying At Otago Than Ever Before

Posted 10:46pm Saturday 13th March 2021 by Alex Leckie-Zaharic

With international gap years now off the market, and a lack of jobs available, about a thousand naive lads and lasses with nothing better to do have enrolled at Otago, boosting the total number of students back to pre-Covid levels.  The student numbers have risen by 952 students from last Read more...

OUSA Apartments Generate Outrage

Posted 2:15pm Saturday 6th March 2021 by Denzel Chung

Your students’ association plans to turn the first floor of the University Bookshop into rental accommodation, and past Exec members are not happy about it. Two previous Exec members have questioned why a proposal rejected three times in the last five years was resurrected in Read more...