The comments arise as the Dunedin City Council begins deliberations on its draft nine-year plan.
The draft plan includes an infrastructure strategy for the city, but not one specifically for the increasingly busy student quarter.
"The university is anticipating growth in student numbers over the period of this plan ... There is presently no acknowledgement of this growth in the plan, nor the infrastructure to support it."
The university’s submission also said it did not feel it had been factored into any models for city-wide growth, and as such, it wanted to contribute to any further review of housing capacity.
Otago University Students’ Association president Liam White said students shared many of the university’s concerns about the council’s lack of planning.
"The university is predicting significant growth over the next 10 years and I always ask the question every time it comes up ‘where are they going to live?’.
"I think sometimes this can create a bit of panic, but through intelligent, smart policy, this can be managed really efficiently."
Mr White said while growth in student numbers would be a good thing, he wanted to ensure the right infrastructure was built alongside it.
More effort could be put into upgrading and expanding halls of residence, or developing more university-owned uni flats, he said.
"I think the university has identified the correct problem, but what I don’t want to have happen is the development of student slums.
"Not to be rude, that is kind of what happened in North East Valley."
As growth was going to happen regardless, Mr White said the best minds in Dunedin needed to tackle it.
"The tertiary precinct planning group used to exist and it used to have OUSA, the uni, the landlords, the DCC, [and] the Otago Regional Council and we all used to get together and plan what the future of North Dunedin would look like and around our university.
"It just fell off.
"I think now is the right time to get everybody back around the table and thinking about the future of the area."
OUSA will speak to their submission to the city council this week.
