The Otago University Students' Association remains in a solid financial position, and ran an operating surplus of more than $500,000 last year.
General manager Darel Hall said last year's financial statements further confounded the misconception that students' associations ''don't think and act professionally''.
''We are 124 years old. We have got to think in generational terms, rather than what's happening just next year, or the year after,'' Mr Hall said.
The financial statements showed the association ran an operating surplus of $525,497, excluding GST, last year.
Its surplus in 2012 was $636,566.
Operating revenue had declined from $9.4 million to $9.2 million, in part due to there being no dividend from the OUSA-owned University Book Shop last year, which accounted for $50,000 of the difference.
The association was in good stead for the future, he said.
It held just over $6 million in reserves, which included $1 million in the ''future students investment fund''.
