A message for the 2024 Otago Student Cohort

Posted 12:27pm Sunday 8th October 2023

Since this is the last issue of Critic for the year, I thought I’d take the opportunity to use the my executive privilege to hijack a page here and say thank you to everyone at the University of Otago and across the country who has taken time this year to bring attention to the tertiary Read more...

Edinburgh Asks Students To Re-Sign by May, Backtracks

Posted 7:50pm Sunday 15th May 2022

Edinburgh Realty was sending letters to students telling them to decide whether they would re-sign their flats in May. They were forced to backtrack after admitting that their demands violated the Residential Tenancies Act.  In the letter sent to tenants, Edinburgh Property Management asked Read more...

Traffic Goes Up 50% When Students Return

Posted 11:12am Tuesday 13th July 2021

Traffic was almost 50% up on State Highway One as students poured in for the start of the term.  Radio One reported that 8,068 vehicles sputtered along SH1 by Kilmog Hill on Friday the 19th of February, the day before O Week began at the start of the year. This is 43% higher than the 2020 Read more...

Consequences of Bitcoin Debated

Posted 3:02pm Sunday 9th May 2021

You can buy a Tesla with it, and you can evade the feds with it, but recent reports from Cambridge University show that bitcoin mining consumes more power than the entire country Argentina, and accounts for nearly 1% of global power consumption. Actual, physical mining accounts for 4–7% of Read more...

Science Library Third Floor Converted to Offices

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 18th April 2021

The third floor of the Uni’s Science Library has been stripped of books and is set to become office spaces for the Sciences Divisional Board i.e. the people who run the Science programmes at Otago.  According to Campus Development Division Director Tanya Syddal, the area is to be fit Read more...

Otago University Stops Funding The Conversation

Posted 10:01pm Saturday 10th April 2021

The University of Otago has stopped funding academic publication The Conversation as part of pandemic-era budget cuts. Every other University in New Zealand currently funds the service, according to logos displayed on the publication’s website. The Conversation, launched in 2011, is an open Read more...

Boutique Hotel Takes the L, Repurposed into Student Accommodation

Posted 6:01pm Saturday 6th March 2021

Otago University has converted its Executive Residence boutique hotel into student accommodation for 2021.  The Executive Residence, also known as “that fancy house on Union Street East,” is now being managed by University College as a part of the University’s expansion of Read more...