University accommodation services director James Lindsay said he had received a "steady stream" of requests from politicians wanting to campaign on campus.
It was not appropriate to have candidates coming without invitation into what was effectively a students' living room.
"The residential colleges are students' homes for the academic year.
"It is not appropriate to have political candidates coming without invitation," he said.
National Party Dunedin North candidate Mike Woodhouse questioned whether those who were not politically affiliated and wanted to speak at a college would have greater access.
He was disappointed, especially given the reception he had received at colleges not owned by the university, he said.
It was concerning that universities, traditionally the cradle of political activism, had become areas of high political apathy, he said.
Mr Lindsay said candidates were welcome to attend a college by invitation.
This was was the case recently, when the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, visited Carrington College.
He had received only one request to date from a candidate to speak in a college.
All candidates would be given the same answer, regardless of party or parliamentary status.
Dunedin North MP Pete Hodgson said he had been visiting colleges and speaking to students for years and he would be contacting the colleges this year as well.
He said it was a "neat reversal" from the 1990s, when universities could not get candidates to speak, to now, when they could not keep them away.
Green Party MP Metiria Turei, of Dunedin, said she could not imagine why any candidate would think they could enter colleges, as of right, as it was the same as entering a home.
