Allison Rudd

Those planning to study at the University of Otago for fun next year will have to find a new hobby.

Otago Polytechnic has recovered from a poor financial result in 2008 by recording a surplus last year.

Dunedin student magazine Critic is under fire over comments it published about three of Dunedin's most vulnerable citizens.

The University of Otago is about to begin searching for a new leader after vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg's surprise announcement he will stand aside next year.

About 10,000 North Otago households were without electricity for almost two hours last night after a major fault at the junction between national grid and the region's power lines.

The University of Otago will introduce two-tier enrolments from next year in a move designed to halt the rapid growth in first-year domestic numbers.

Zara Coghill confesses she doesn't always attend her University of Otago lectures.

Traditional lecture theatres and seminar rooms will probably never disappear from the University of Otago campus, but those planning for the future are sure about one thing - designing flexible teaching, learning and research spaces will be the key.

The restructuring of the University of Otago's social work department enables social work to continue to be taught, vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg said.

A crop of University of Otago buildings dating from the 1960s have been recommended for demolition in the university's 25-year campus master plan. Tertiary education reporter Allison Rudd finds out why the buildings have not stood the test of time, and what is being done to make sure future buildings do.

Students from two tertiary institutions will soon have have extra study space alongside their reading material, after all.

Cutting cakes was used to draw attention to cutting jobs yesterday as staff at the University of Otago College of Education protested against proposed restructuring.

Dunedin nurse Barbara Turnbull will be in war-torn northwest Pakistan next week, working in a Red Cross tent hospital, living in the "safe" part of the city of Peshawar where suicide bombings and gun battles occur frequently and adjusting to temperatures of 45degC.

A plan detailing how the University of Otago might improve its campuses and expand over the next 25 years received an enthusiastic and positive response when it was launched yesterday.

Their musical styles might be completely different, but 17-year-old Kane Strang wants his career to emulate that of his late grandfather, Dunedin band leader Harry Strang.

Staff at the University of Otago College of Education fear a cost-cutting restructuring proposal announced yesterday will result in poorer-quality programmes for teacher trainees.

Just what yesterday's Budget announcements will mean financially for tertiary institutions is unclear.