The Otago rower teamed with Eric Murray to win the pair at the world championships in Munich last year. It was Bond's second world title. He was stroke of the four that won the world title in 2007.
Bond has already been named New Zealand rower of the year, and he and Eric Murray were named team of the year at the Halberg Awards.
The other finalists for the top university award are cyclist Jaime Nielsen, surf life-saver Nikki Cox, paralympic swimmer Cameron Leslie, netballer Laura Langman and All Black Stephen Donald.
Sixty students will receive a Blue in recognition of their outstanding sporting and academic achievements in 2009. They include the University of Otago's Andrea Miller and Dougal Thorburn (athletics) and Rick Parry (ice hockey).
University Sport New Zealand received more than 120 nominations across 41 sports for the 2009 academic year.
The high standard of academic and sporting excellence achieved by this year's recipients is indicated by the 16 who competed at the Beijing Olympics.
In addition, 34 are carded under the New Zealand Academy of Sport, and 28 have received a Prime Minister's Scholarship for 2010.
Carolina Dillen (Auckland) will be awarded a distinguished performance award in taekwondo, and World University Summer Games athletes Miller, Monique Williams (Auckland), Stuart Farquhar (Waikato) and Brent Newdick (Auckland) will receive outstanding achievement awards for their medal-winning performances in Belgrade last year.
New Zealand University Blues were first awarded in 1919, and 2600 have been awarded in the past 91 years.
