Otago's O-Week envy of all the rest: Hayne

The University of Otago's latest student Orientation Week was ''the envy of all the other New Zealand universities'', vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne said yesterday.

And the level of antisocial behaviour by Otago students had been ''very, very low'' during the period, Prof Hayne told yesterday's University Council meeting.

She congratulated the Otago University Students' Association and its president, Francisco Hernandez, on the high standard of O-Week. The Forsyth Barr Stadium, used this year for orientation activities for the second time, had proved a fine venue, enabling all 5000 first-year students to gather in one place for the orientation welcome. The first-year students had enjoyed gathering with their peers.

The generally good overall behaviour reflected the fact Otago University students were, in large part, ''an outstanding group of young people''.

She predicted the Otago University Orientation Week programme would become ''even more of a hallmark as time goes on''. Mr Hernandez said in an interview that this year's O-Week had been ''very successful'' and ''the best in the country''.

This view had been strongly supported by comments from other students' associations elsewhere in the country, he said. The Otago association had achieved a major coup in attracting the highly popular international hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

A positive relationship with the university, strong community support and a big effort by paid association staff and many student volunteers had contributed to the success.