Summer School began this week and will run for six weeks before finishing on February 13 when exams begin.
Theatre and English student Caitlin Proctor said she was doing summer school to finish her bachelor’s degree early.
"I was one paper short for finishing my bachelor of arts, so I thought I’d just get it out of the way quickly."
She said the biggest difference between a regular semester and summer school had been having four lectures for one paper in a week.
For her English degree most papers only had about two lectures a week.
Campus felt a bit "eerie" during the summer.
"It’s a little bit creepy because it’s so empty," she said.
Another Summer School student, Thomas Boyte, was completing a statistics paper he had failed in order to meet the prerequisites for his degree.
He said the workload seemed to be a lot more manageable and he could focus on the one paper.
It was also easier finding a space to study in the library because there were not many people around.
A University of Otago spokeswoman said there were a total of 32 papers on offer this year that were being taught over six weeks rather than the usual 13 weeks in a semester.
A wide range of papers are on offer including psychology of religion, introduction to tourism, vocal performance and recording, and personal finance.
The most popular paper over the past four years and again this year is treasure or trash: sustainability of materials.
