A University of Otago politics lecturer says students in Dunedin have exchanged political activism for "hedonism".
This comes after there were no student protests in Dunedin over changes to student allowances and loans in last month's Budget and the Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) elected not to join a protest with Grey Power over the sale of Government-owned assets.
In contrast, about 400 students blocked streets in Auckland to protest the Budget.
In Wellington Victoria University students also took part in protests.
Otago University politics lecturer Dr Bryce Edwards said the lack of protests was "surprising" considering Dunedin was once a "hotbed of student radicalism".
This included leading the way in protests against government changes to tertiary education in the mid-1990s - which saw students occupy the Otago University registry building.
He said the lack of any anti-Budget protest was part of a wider trend of apathy - when it comes to politics - among students in Dunedin, which could in part be attributed to a lack of strong political leadership on campus.
"Dunedin students are becoming more known for their hedonism than for their counterculture and anti-Establishment politics.
"Protests seem to have given way to other pursuits, namely socialising, parties and drinking," he said.
He thought this was a "sad" development.
"I think that universities should be places where the Establishment is challenged; where alternative ideas are raised; where a lot of critical thinking should take place."
OUSA president Logan Edgar disagreed students were more "hedonistic" than in the past and instead put the lack of political action down to an absence of big issues - like the Vietnam War and the Springbok tour - which in the past got students out on the street.
He said he would have been happy to organise a protest over the changes in the Budget if the student body had wanted it, but no-one had come to him asking for it.
OUSA had elected not to march with Grey Power against the sale of Government assets because it was not an education issue and the student body did not feel strongly one way or the other, he said.
If an issue inflamed Otago University students - for instance the Government putting interest back on student loans - the OUSA would be heavily involved in protesting it, he said.
