The students are participating in the Pacific Study Abroad Programme. They spend the first six weeks in Dunedin, staying at Hayward College, and a second six-week block in Australia.
It is part of their spring semester programme, and they will take classes in subjects such as physics, public policy and conservation biology.
Programme director Mike Goodisman said the university brought over its own faculty lecturers.
The courses would be "intense", but the students should have plenty of time to explore Dunedin and the rest of the South Island in the weekends.