Education Minister Chris Hipkins is demanding to know why a student lay dead at a University of Canterbury hall of residence for a lengthy period, saying the private operators of the residence haven't lived up to their duty of care.
Specialist police teams have been called in to assist with formal identification of the young man whose body was found at the Sonada Village student accommodation on Monday night, and police say this process is ongoing.
It's unclear how and when the student died but media reports say the body lay unnoticed at the residence in Ilam for nearly two months.
Mr Hipkins said this afternoon no student should be left for that period of time unattended or uncared for when they're living in a hall of residence or a hostel.
"There's a duty of care that goes with operating a hall of residence or a hostel and clearly they haven't lived up to that in this situation," Mr Hipkins told reporters at Parliament.
"I want to know why that is. So I want the university to conduct a full investigation around that," he said.
"I also understand that the police are looking at the matter as they should and I'll await the outcome of those investigations before we make any decisions about what we may do further."
But Mr Hipkins said he's also going to be looking at "the regulatory and the legal settings" around operating a hall of residence or hostel, "because clearly there's been quite a big failure here".
"And if that means that things need to change to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again in the future, then we will do that."
The minister said he doesn't have any more detail on the case than what he's seen in the media.
"Obviously I'm really concerned about it. My thoughts are with the family of the student concerned," he said.
Police are concluding a scene examination today, Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Johnson confirmed.
A post-mortem was conducted last evening, he said.
Police continue to make a number of inquiries around what happened to assist the coroner, who will ultimately rule on cause of death, Mr Johnson said.
Police are working closely with the family and the University of Canterbury through this process, he added.
Anyone who has information that may help police is being asked to get in touch by phoning 105.
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