Amongst the usual run of student gibberish, e.g. Sub, NZUSA, StudAss, Exec, MINCE, etc. one often comes across the term NZUSU which resembles NZUSA four vowels removed. The latter stands for New Zealand Universities Students' Association, the national Students Association in effect, while the former stands for New Zealand Universities Sports Union, the national student sports body.

The administration side of University sport appears festooned with red tape, but it is difficult to see how to eradicate this. Anyhow, the system functions reasonably efficiently most of the time, albeit slowly. The basic unit is the individual university sports club, which is affiliated to the local students' association. Each University Students' Association has a Sports Committee that handles general sports matters, such as making recommendations for grants and travel arrangements to tournaments.