Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. Aus., also the U) university; also attrib.

1898		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. Red Page: The only classical idioms I have found [...] are rotter, i.e., an adept in learning anything; and panem agere, Sydney Uni. slang for ‘doing a loaf.’.
1907		N.Z. Truth 26 Jan. 6/7: Norman Gough, B.A., of the Sydney Uni, has been engaged to teach French and German.
1913		Lincoln Daily News 7 Jan. in DN IV:ii 126: ‘Uni. Men Depart to Judge Debates’ [Headline].
1920		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Feb. 18/2: [He] said that if his big lot [of wool] realised more than [a suggested price] he would give the rest to Mwelboune Uni.
1937		Mirror (Perth) 6 Mar. 9/2: [headline] What about a Uni Chair of Faceology?
1957		‘Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 91: Yeah. Thought you’d learnt ut at the Uni.
1969		T. Murphy Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer’s Assistant (1978) Scene iv: Jimmy is going to the uni next autumn.
1974		(con. late 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 438: You go to the U?
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 19: If you go to university you’re at uni.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 117/1: uni contraction of university.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] ‘[Y]ou slack around up at uni’.
1997		J. Birmingham Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (1998) 99: You can hook it up to the Net through my account at uni.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 8: She reckoned that, two years on from uni, still covering the flotsam passing through Leeds, York and Middlesborough was apprenticeship enough.
2003		Observer 8 June 3: Uni is for twats.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] Greek mythology [...] was my favourite subject at uni.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I went to uni, studied English lit.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 8: The politicos at the uni would be as jealous as fuck.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘I was at uni down in Melbourne’.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 37: Bill Davies is a lawyer, a Glasgow Uni graduate.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 13: I have to make sure I’m up nice and early [...] for my 9 a.m. uni lecture.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 352: ‘They’d been friends since uni’.

2. (US campus) a uniform.

1968		Current Sl. II:4.
1983		L. Frank Playing Hardball 118: ‘Uni’ for uniform.

3. (N.Z. prison, also university (of crime)) Paremoremo Prison.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 196/1: uni (also university or university of crime) n. Paremoremo Prison.