Born in the Netherlands, he is among about 220 people who will be graduating from the university, mainly with degrees and diplomas in education and teaching, at a ceremony at the Dunedin Town Hall.
He felt "an enormous sense of relief" at completing his own long educational journey with the conferring of the PhD.
A former Otago University Students Association education co-ordinator and advocate, Mr van der Meer has focused his doctoral research on better understanding the challenges faced by first-year students in making sense of their teaching and learning environment.
"I would never have thought all those years ago when I started my teaching degree in Amsterdam [in the Netherlands] that I would complete a doctorate looking at students starting their degree in the most southern university of the world, the University of Otago."
After emigrating to New Zealand in 1990, he lived in Auckland, gaining a master of education degree in counselling at Auckland University, before shifting to Dunedin in 2000.
He has been a lecturer in student learning development at the university's Higher Education Development Centre since 2005.
The experiences of Otago first-year students, gleaned through surveys and interviews as part of his research, suggested that some university teachers were more aware than others of the academic challenges students faced.
These included time management and understanding what was expected of them, such as how to undertake the required reading and essay writing.
Students did not necessarily experience difficulties because of their background, ability or attitude to studying, but because "the level of responsiveness to first-year students' needs differed between courses," he said.
More than 500 of about 3700 Otago first-year students drop out during that first year, a problem also experienced by other universities throughout the world.
Otago University had one of the lowest first-year university drop out rates in the country and its 70% completion rate for students starting bachelor degrees was well above the 50% national average.
But there was scope for further improvement.
And he has been contributing to initiatives to help, including a peer learning pilot programme at the university School of Business and some time management work with students at University College.
