The centre was established at the start of the year and from next year will offer two courses, a postgraduate diploma in peace studies and a master of arts in peace studies.
Centre head Prof Kevin Clements said he was "somewhat surprised" at the high level of interest and put it down to a variety of factors: the attraction of New Zealand as a study destination, international knowledge and appreciation of New Zealand's anti-nuclear stance, an interest in this country's approach to relations between indigenous Maori and settlers who came later, and a following of students who had worked with him at other universities and wanted to do so again.
"The level of interest is pretty amazing when you consider students will have to come to Dunedin to do their study. We are doing our bit for the import drive."
While the inquiries had not yet been converted into enrolments, Prof Clements said he hoped for 10 to 20 enrolments.
There was no upper limit on enrolments, but larger numbers would require teaching in lecture-style classes rather than the small, multicultural tutorial groups he favoured.
The centre was established with a $1.25 million donation from the Aotearoa New Zealand Peace and Conflict Studies Centre Trust and a matching grant from the Government's Leading Thinkers fund.
Prof Clements returned to New Zealand to oversee it after 17 years in international posts, including a period as secretary-general of International Alert, a London-based peace research organisation, and most recently as foundation director of the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, at the University of Queensland.
He said he "jumped at the chance" of establishing a peace studies centre in New Zealand and was enjoying building up a solid base of research partners from among his wide network of global contacts.
Some of those contacts had been tapped to arrange practical research projects for next year's students, in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and East Timor.
Prof Clements has also been busy organising a programme of visiting fellows.
Three who will come during the first semester next year are peace activist Dr Paul Oestreicher, his wife, gender studies specialist Prof Barbara Einhorn, and Irish academic Niall O'Dochartaigh, who has been researching the secret diplomacy between the IRA and the British Government which brought about a negotiated ceasefire in the 1990s.
