The government’s assistance had not been keeping pace with university costs, leading to "significant constraints" on some programmes, he said at yesterday’s University Council meeting.
"This increase is highly regrettable."
Mr Robertson also acknowledged the fees increased occurred during a time of student hardship, and the university encouraged students, particularly those on lower incomes, to access the hardship fund and specifically targeted scholarships.
There had been a lift in support for student hardship relief through the Otago University Students’ Association hardship relief fund ($33,500 next year), in the University Pūtea Tautoko financial aid fund and an increase in the Residential College Relief Fund.
The university would continue to advocate the government for increased funding.
"The university annual fee increase of 6%, which is set by the government, used to once upon a time be linked effectively to the rate of inflation, but it’s clear from this year that this link is now broken.
"I think the funding system itself does need to be re-looked at — one of my disappointments coming out of the Peter Gluckman reviews is that the government doesn’t appear to have taken up his suggestions around re-looking at the funding system, because it does need to happen."
Council member Prof David Eyres was uncomfortable with supporting the fee increase, but his conclusion was that the council had no option but to adopt it given the overall funding environment.
OUSA outgoing president Liam White said he was not ignorant of the university’s financial issues and he appreciated the various financial mitigation suites.
However, from an OUSA perspective, he said it would be inappropriate of him to support a measure that would increase cost-of-living hardships.
He was also worried that hikes of 6% could become the norm.
"In this present environment, I can’t see a way where increasing fees doesn’t become a habit for the university ... this approach is not putting the students first."
Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said Budget 2025 saw a small but real cut in tuition subsidies of $12 million for the entire university sector.
"That’s a small drop in funding, but it comes at the end of a five-year period where overall funding has increased by 8.7% at a time when inflation has run at 25%.
"Although the government has not increased tuition subsidies, it has allowed universities to increase student fees by up to 6% for the 2026 academic year.
"Financial pressures are such that most or all universities are having to seriously consider increasing by the full amount."
Protect Otago Action Group spokeswoman Rosie Cruickshank said the university had been "weak" on these issues.
"They have the power to make these decisions.
"They like to push that back towards the government and the government likes to push it back towards the universities and we see both of them not taking any responsibility for the decisions that get made."
She would like to see real government funding above inflation of universities.
"We want to see fees free and funding above inflation and universal student allowance and we want the university management to work with us to get that right, to defy when the government says ‘you have to cut’— and instead say ‘no, we won’t be doing that’ and to say ‘no’ to fee hikes as well."
Meanwhile, the University Council unanimously agreed to increasing the compulsory activity fares for this year by 3.3% to $1193.
Mr White said it was always tricky grappling with tight budgets, but the university and OUSA felt it had delivered something at a decent price.
