Victoria University's Katharine Jermyn Hall on Boulcott St is under an alcohol ban.

Victoria University has imposed alcohol bans in three halls of residence after first-year students threw "crazy" parties, one involving dancing with a road cone.

The most-recent ban, at Katharine Jermyn Hall on Boulcott St, follows a party - promoted on Facebook as "graduation from Subway university" - which the university says involved "excessive drinking" and unacceptable behaviour.

But residents of the hall said that party, on Saturday, paled in comparison to another one about a month ago thrown by first-year law students.

Partygoers punched holes in the ceiling and caused significant damage, they said.

"The law students just went crazy," one said.

A notice posted on the front door of the hall said there was now a "total alcohol ban". It was effective immediately and would last until management decided to reverse the measure.

It was "due to excessive drinking, breach of Katharine Jermyn Hall rules, behaviour towards staff and overall unacceptable behaviour shown on Saturday night".

It is understood that during the parties, party-goers swarmed the hallway and ignored staff telling them to stay in their rooms.

University campus services director Jenny Bentley confirmed there were parties in the hall that led to the ban.

"I won't be commenting on specifics other than to advise that hall behaviour expectations were breached and there was some damage but it was relatively minor," she said in a statement.

"The cause of the damage to a small area of ceiling has not been confirmed."

She earlier said she understood partygoers at the law student party did not intentionally punch holes in the ceiling but were dancing with a road cone and somehow a hole was made in the ceiling.

The university banned drinking in public areas of halls and after 10pm was "quiet time".

Alcohol bans were one method in a "tool box" of approaches the university used to control behaviour in its halls.

Katharine Jermyn and Joan Stevens halls were still under bans while Boulcott halls recently had it lifted.

Bentley was not able to specify the breaches, which led to each ban.

Alcohol was "usually part of what is going on" in leading to the bans but was not necessarily the sole reason."

"The events are not serious in a physical sense, they are serious to us in terms of expectations."

Incidents happened in all universities and in all halls of residence, she said.

Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association President Rick Zwaan saidan overall alcohol ban could be a overly-punitive measure in some cases.

"These are students' homes so they should have the same rights as any other citizens in their own homes."

The bans potentially had unintended outcomes, such as making residents annoyed or resentful.

"Penalising the whole hall for a few residents' behaviour is a bit unfair in some cases."

However, he conceded that the university had to take action when incidents got out of hand.

The university has 14 halls of residence listed on its website.

* An earlier version of this article included Te Puni hall as being subject to an alcohol ban. This was based on incorrect information supplied by the university.