The announcement of the cuts, effectively suspending the August and November doctoral scholarship rounds, shocked many academics, who were informed about it via an all-staff email from Mr Robertson last week.
A university spokeswoman confirmed to the Otago Daily Times Mr Robertson had apologised about the way the information was disseminated.
She said academic staff were "well aware" of the financial constraints under which the university was operating and the vice-chancellor re-emphasised that at an all-staff forum in late June.
"In this case there was a need to move quickly to put a pause on upcoming doctoral scholarship rounds given they were soon to begin."
It was an issue that had been discussed with leadership internally, but "was not pre-signalled to staff more broadly", the spokeswoman said.
"The vice-chancellor has apologised to staff for the way this information was communicated."
Otago University Students’ Association postgraduate representative Josh Stewart told the ODT he was aware of the apology to staff and felt a formal apology to students affected would also be appropriate, because they were the ones who "bore the most stress and uncertainty" as a result of the decision.
The university spokeswoman said the decision was made to pause two rounds of doctoral scholarship awards, not because of 2025 expenditure but "because of the consequences for 2026 and beyond".
"We needed to take into account increases in the stipend, increasing fees and the policy to automatically award scholarships to people from New Zealand universities who have a GPA [grade point average] of eight or higher.
"We had to take action now, to ensure there will be a sustainable budget for doctoral scholarships next year and into the future."
She said the decision affected "only" the August and November new doctoral scholarship rounds — about 50 scholarships — and the university would award about 140 this year.
Politics lecturer Dr Brian Roper said the decision to cut back on scholarships was the inevitable conclusion of the university being underfunded by successive governments.
"The reality is that the vice-chancellor and the senior leadership group are being put in a very difficult position because they’re just not getting enough money from the government to fund everything that the university has done historically and is doing."
The university was therefore forced to make "re-prioritisations" in "what’s in essence in a very fiscally restrained environment".
"I do feel that the senior leaderships of all of New Zealand’s universities really need to be pushing back a lot harder than they have been against what the government’s done," Dr Roper said.
A university spokeswoman said a "new strategy" for the scholarship programme was a priority.
"We are drafting the terms of reference for that review and these will be released very shortly."
The university had more than 1400 doctoral students enrolled, of which about 40% were international students.
Just over half of doctoral students were supported by university-provided scholarships.
Asked whether increased funding for struggling universities was likely in the future, a spokeswoman for Universities Minister Dr Shane Reti said the individual university councils were required to ensure universities "operate in a financially responsible manner that maintains their long-term viability".
"Any decision to cut back is a decision for the University of Otago."
