The National Party's clean sweep of polling booths around the University of Otago appears to be a ''significant shift'' in the student voting base, political lecturer Dr Bryce Edwards says.
On election day, all seven polling booths near the campus in Dunedin were won by National.
In 2011, the party narrowly won just two of the six booths.
Dr Edwards, of the University of Otago, said Labour previously would have been expected to win those booths, where a high proportion of students voted.
''On the face of it, there appears to be a sea change of student support shifting among the student base towards the right.
''This is a significant shift,'' Dr Edwards said said.
That move might be due to the university environment becoming more conservative, as it was a ''long time since radicalism and protest defined politics on campus''.
He noted students were diverse in their political leanings, and while Young Labour once dominated the campus scene, other parties - such as National and the Greens - were now more visible.
However, he cautioned that if the Labour and Greens' votes were combined, the left bloc would have won six of the seven booths.
The booth figures also did not take into account the popular option of advance votes, or special votes cast by students for their hometown electorates.
''Overall, it seems that the university booths are much more dominated by National and Greens than in the past.
''Labour should be worried about its eroding support among the student base.''
Young Nats member and University of Otago student John Brinsley-Pirie said he was surprised National did so well in each booth, ''compared with not only Labour, but also the Greens''.
''I know combined they would have beaten us, but I would have expected one of them to have beaten the National vote, given how vocal they have been around campus.''
Students were interested in politics, with campus still a place for ''vocal critiques of the current Government'', he said.
''However, there was a general positive move towards National across the entire country, and that included youth at university as well.''
Young Labour vice-president New Zealand Georgina O'Reilly, an Otago University student, said the campus clean sweep hurt, and was perhaps an example of student ''slacktivism''.
She conceded the Young Nats were more visible on campus ''and they had a brand and they stuck with it''.
That brand was Prime Minister John Key, whose popularity and success appealed to students ''who inherently have become a little lazier; particularly in terms of activism, which is not sexy any more''.
National came within 24 votes of winning the party vote in Dunedin North, which was won by Labour with 9822 votes.
The seat was won by Labour's Dr David Clark, with an increased majority of 5398, over National candidate Michael Woodhouse.
