This comes as the university council - in what has become routine at New Zealand tertiary institutions - yesterday voted to increase fees for next year by 4%, despite impassioned pleas from two student politicians.
The university said a tight funding environment and cost increases meant it had no choice but to raise fees by the maximum allowable amount, which was expected to bring in an extra $4.3 million next year.
A report tabled at the meeting said increases in staff salaries, totalling $8.8 million, was the ''most significant'' expected cost increase.
After voting against the increase, council member Associate Prof Liz Slooten told the Otago Daily Times she felt uncomfortable accepting annual pay increases while year after year students were expected to pay more.
''They need [the money] so much more than I do right now,'' Prof Slooten said.
She accepted some low-paid university staff should get pay rises, but believed it would be ''healthy'' to have a discussion about the top 25% or 50% of staff taking a pay cut.
The move would likely be unpopular, but pay was not the main motivation for many staff and some might be willing to take a cut if there was certainty it would go towards reducing student fees.
Figures released to the ODT under the Official Information Act last year showed 547 academic staff and 87 general staff at the university earned more than $100,000 in the 2012-13 financial year.
The vote to increase fees came after the two student representatives on the council pleaded for the university council not to increase fees.
Former OUSA president Francisco Hernandez said while a lack of Government funding was to blame for the rise, it was time for the university to make a stand.
''I propose that this university takes a principled stand and refuses to raise the fees,'' he said.
Vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne said fee increases came as the university's costs were increasing at a ''much faster'' rate than inflation.
''In order to keep up with those costs and maintain the quality of the education we provide, we must increase our tuition fees.
"We obviously sympathise with students, but we also understand Government's predicament of trying to increase funding to universities in the wake of the severe fiscal constraints caused by the global financial crisis and the Canterbury earthquakes,'' she said.
Tertiary Education Union national secretary Sharn Riggs said it should not be a question of either increasing fees or increasing wages.
Instead, the Government should fund institutions enough so they could afford both, she said.
If wages did not go up, universities would struggle to attract and keep the best staff.
Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce said the Government was not to blame for the fee increases.
Taxpayer funding for the university had ''increased substantially'' over the last five years and the university was yet to make ''big efforts to grow income from international students'' - a revenue source that was very low at Otago by Australasian standards, Mr Joyce said.
