Otago University Students Association president Simon Wilson and fellow association representative Matt Tucker raised what they consider the late timing of the fee-setting process, at this week's University Council meeting.
University chief operating officer John Patrick said domestic tuition fees were usually set by the University Council as part of the overall university budgeting process.
This was a complex process and it took considerable time to present all the required information to council, Mr Patrick said.
University officials said the link with the university budget enabled the governing council to assess the university's overall income and spending picture when deciding on fees.
Prof Skegg said that, under the current Government, fee rises had been limited under a fee maxima policy, usually to a maximum of 5% per annum.
He noted that significant national funding changes had been mooted shortly before Otago University was to determine its domestic fees last year.
If fees had to be set before the overall university budget was available, it was likely the council would seek to increase fees by the maximum 5% as a precautionary measure, he said.
Prof Skegg asked what the higher priority was, to demonstrate over a potential fee rise or "to help to have a minimum fee increase" by waiting until the budget had been prepared.
Student representatives said Otago University was setting its fees in November, which was later than other universities and limited the chance for Otago students to provide any input into fee-setting before they left campus at the end of the year.
After a suggestion by Messrs Wilson and Tucker, Mr Patrick agreed to bring back to the next council meeting a written report providing a time line of the budget and fee-setting process.
A financial report tabled at the council showed a $12,958,000 operating surplus for the first three months of this year, up from the $9,615,000 surplus which had been budgeted for the period.
The report noted that the "strong surplus" had been boosted by extra revenue being generated and lower spending than budgeted.
While much of the spending variance was due to timing issues, it seemed likely that the budgeted annual surplus would be exceeded, the report, by financial services director Grant McKenzie noted.