[15][16] The university's graduation song, Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus ("Let us rejoice, while we are young"), acknowledges students will continue to live up to the challenge, if not always in the way intended.

The Otago Association's plan for the European settlement of southern New Zealand, conceived under the principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield in the 1840s, envisaged a university.

Dunedin leaders Thomas Burns and James Macandrew urged the Otago Provincial Council during the 1860s to set aside a land endowment for an institute of higher education.

[17] An ordinance of the council established the university in 1869, giving it 100,000 acres (400 km2) of land and the power to grant degrees in Arts, Medicine, Law and Music.

[24] Beginning in 2015 university Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Tony Ballantyne implemented cuts in academic and support staff which generated enduring controversy.

The Otago Daily Times reported on 'demoralised teachers and researchers' who were 'locked in pain and anger at what their institution had become' and later opined that 'the university desperately needs a reset'.

"[33][34] On 14 July 2021, the woman, who has interim name suppression, admitted to threatening to carry out a firearms and explosives attack against Otago students.

[36] In mid-April 2023, Otago University reported that it was facing a NZ$60 million deficit due to declining student enrollments and a shortfall in government funding.

In response, Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Helen Nicholson stated that the university was considering laying off several hundred staff members including academics.

[40] In late May 2023, the Otago Daily Times reported that the university had declined to inform staff of its NZ$60 million budget shortfall in November 2022.

[41] In late June 2023, the Government announced a NZ$128 million funding injection for degree-level and postgraduate programmes for New Zealand universities and other tertiary institutions.

University development and alumni relations office director Shelagh Murray attributed the decline in donor funding to the ongoing impact of Covid-19, the economic recession and the cost-of-living crisis on individuals and businesses.

[55] The Central Library is part of the Information Services Building and has over 2000 study spaces, 130 computer terminals, and laptop connections at 500 desks.

[citation needed] The Hocken Collections is a research library, archive, and art gallery of national significance which is administered by the University of Otago.

The library's specialist areas include items relating to the history of New Zealand and the Pacific, with specific emphasis on the Otago and Southland regions.

It is currently situated at the site of the former Otago Co-operative Dairy Company factory on Anzac Avenue, east of the main campus.

Other professional schools and faculties not found in all New Zealand universities include Pharmacy, Physical Education, Physiotherapy, Medical Laboratory Science, and Surveying.

There are also a number of service divisions including:[64] The University of Otago and the Dunedin College of Education (a specialist teacher training institution) merged on 1 January 2007.

The University of Otago owns, or is in affiliation with, fourteen residential colleges, which provide food, accommodation, social and welfare services.

[65][66] In mid-March 2023, the university unveiled a new proposed logo replacing the traditional coat of arms with a symbol and a new Māori name for the institution as part of its Vision 2040 strategy.

The proposed symbol is intended to symbolise the Otakou channel in Otago harbour while the coat of arms will be retained for ceremonial settings such as graduation events.

The proposal also involves changing the current Māori name from Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo to Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka ("A Place of Many Firsts").

Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Helen Nicholson stated that the proposed logo and name change was intended to create a visual identity that reflected modern Aotearoa New Zealand.

[71] The process was also criticised for costing about $700,000 whilst large numbers of academic staff were made redundant on the grounds of budgetary shortfalls.

[72][73] On 11 July 2023, the University council voted to proceed with the logo and alternate Māori name change following a consultation process with staff, students, and alumni.

This is the maximum rating achievable under the QS Stars System, which takes into account the quality of Otago's facilities, teaching, graduate employability, internationalisation, and inclusiveness.

The introduction of the CoC was accompanied by the establishment of the dedicated 'Campus Watch' security force to keep tabs on crime and anti-social behaviour on campus and in the student neighbourhoods nearby.

Other student social events during the year such as the Toga Parade and the Hyde Street Keg Race are also notable for attracting police attention, but not to the scale of the Undie riots.

In the 1960s mixed flatting (males and females were prohibited from sharing housing up to that time) was contested in various creative ways by Otago students.

[95] On 28 September 1993 Otago students protested against a fee increase at the University Registry (Clocktower Building), which ended in a violent clash with police.