I can tell you what you study based off your census answers

Posted 11:21am Monday 14th July 2025 by Nina Brown

I spent the semester break trawling through census data and am confident I can accurately guess what you study based on how you answer the following questions. If I get it wrong, it says more about whether you’re in the right degree than my powers of generalisation. 1. How’s your Read more...

Editorial: Census Was a Trip

Posted 11:37am Monday 14th July 2025 by Nina Brown

Welcome back to campus! While many of you had a well-deserved rest and shroom-induced epiphanies, I tripped in a labyrinth of census data, was sent down corridors of correlations and came out the other end both enlightened and far too familiar with your lives.  The Critic census was birthed Read more...

Critic Te Ārohi Census 2025

Posted 12:00pm Monday 14th July 2025 by Nina Brown

Disclaimer: AI was used as a data analysis tool in the research for this article. The Critic Te Ārohi census is back for its fifth year. What originally began as thinly veiled nosiness has morphed into an annual data-gathering exercise, tracking the trends of the fine specimen we call the Read more...

Critic Census 2024

Posted 7:11pm Saturday 13th July 2024 by Critic

Back for its fourth year is the Critic Census, the annual data-crunching exercise conducted by the nosy parkers at Critic Te Ārohi. We asked 52 questions on just about everything, and 1005 of you shared the juicy details on study, sex, drugs, flatting, money, politics, relationships and more. Read more...

Critic Te Ārohi Census 2023

Posted 1:11pm Sunday 9th July 2023 by Critic

Last month we challenged you to fill out our 2023 Census. 242 brave students took the plunge, five more than in 2022. We made you endure more than fifty questions that you may or may not have spent too much time thinking about when you should have been studying for your exam the next day, and you Read more...

The Critic Te Arohi Census 2022

Posted 4:07pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Elliot Weir

Who will students vote for in 2023? What’s the most popular vape flavour? Do women prefer Twitter or Reddit for porn? How do I find love? The answers to these questions and more are mere paragraphs away. This year's census gave us plenty of interesting demographic data on the student Read more...

Less than Half of Students in Link Wear Masks

Posted 3:19pm Friday 1st October 2021 by Erin Gourley

According to an informal Critic survey (conducted via the sophisticated method of tally chart), 42% of students are wearing masks in the Link. The survey, conducted last week, involved observing students at different times in the Link and on Union Lawn. Fewer students were wearing masks outside, Read more...

Editorial: Anybody wanna buy some data?

Posted 2:12pm Sunday 18th July 2021 by Erin Gourley

I have learned more about you all than I ever could have hoped.  I know your age, year of study, major, whether you went straight from high school to uni, how prepared you felt starting uni, the most interesting paper you took, whether you work while you study, how much work impacts your Read more...

The Critic Te Arohi Census 2021: who are Otago students, really?

Posted 5:19pm Sunday 18th July 2021 by Elliot Weir

Out of interest, curiosity, and an effort to understand our audience and the wider student body, Critic Te Arohi conducted a survey over the mid-semester break, asking 50 questions that covered a wide range of topics from academics to politics to demographics to drugs. 439 people completed the Read more...