Students are focusing on getting career qualifications at the cost of university life.

That's according to the outgoing chaplain of Auckland University.

Reverend Uesifili Unasa will receive a formal farewell today after more than a decade in the job.

He said university students still do tests and assignments, but are becoming less engaged in the university community.

"Students are no longer expected to experience university life and learning. It's more about targeting the outcomes."

The chaplain also said the university is becoming an increasingly middle class dream.

Employers increasingly expect university qualifications, but those qualifications are becoming far more expensive and inaccessible to poorer students, he said.

"Particularly for those students on the margins, from lower decile schools or from the south or west."

University fee rises are currently capped at four percent a year.