Electives for final-year medical students from outside of New Zealand

Eligibility

Applicants must:

• Be currently enrolled in a recognised medical programme and be in their final year of clinical training at the time of placement commencement.
• Be in good academic standing.
• Have proficiency in written and spoken English.
• Be able to meet the post-acceptance documentation requirements (see below).
• Be from a university who accepts that our supervisors are unable to provide summative assessments, sign off on skills lists, or provide formal teaching sessions.
• Understand that our placements are clinical in nature and international students will treated like the New Zealand final year medical students. International students will be supervised to take patient histories, conduct assessments, and admit patients. They will be part of consultations with patients and their families. This is a hands-on placement; we do not offer observerships.

Placements

Available hospital sites

All elective placements in public hospitals for the South Island and Wellington region are arranged through us, the Faculty of Medicine at University of Otago (inboundelectives@otago.ac.nz). Public hospitals outside of our region are coordinated through the University of Auckland School of Medicine.

Please do not reach out directly to any potential supervisors at public hospitals. We do not accept elective placement requests made this way.

The majority of our placement availabilities are located at our three major hospital sites:

• Christchurch Hospital
• Dunedin Hospital
• Wellington Regional Hospital

We can offer some placements at our smaller and rural hospital sites:

• Tairāwhiti (Gisborne) Hospital
• Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital
• Palmerston North Hospital
• Nelson Hospital
• Wairau (Blenheim) Hospital
• Southland (Invercargill) Hospital

Available specialties

Elective placements are subject to the availability of clinical resources. Available specialties change each date block each year so it is not possible for us to predict which departments will have capacity more than five-to-six months in advance of the start date. Please register your interest below so that we can email you once we have this information.

We are unable to offer General Practice (GP) placements to international students.

Elective dates

2026–2027 elective date blocks

The University of Otago, Faculty of Medicine electives programme only supports placements that are between four and six weeks in duration. The minimum is four-weeks as this leads to better learning outcomes for students, more robust relationships with supervisors, teams, and systems, and stronger continuity of care for our patients. Our maximum is six weeks to align with the New Zealand final year training schedule. We are only able to offer each student one placement with us.

We cannot offer placements that cross our date block streams.

We cannot offer placements that are longer than six weeks at this time.

*Application due dates are end of day New Zealand Time; please consider time zone differences when applying.

Application process

Please register your interest by filling out the pre-application form linked below. Once you have registered your interest, we will email you to confirm that we have received your details.

Register your interest

After registering your interest, your next step will be to complete our small application which will ask for basic information such as:

• Your name
• Email address
• University
• Desired elective dates (within the date blocks)
• Specialty preferences
• Hospital location preferences
• Waitlist preferences

We will email you with the application link once it becomes available for your chosen date block. Please ensure that you complete your application by the due date (as seen above in the Elective date block section). Applications will be processed on a quarterly basis, no earlier than 6 months and no later than 4 months prior to your requested placement date block.

Once the application due date passes, we will do our best to match everyone to an elective placement. We will be using a lottery system for matching, rather than a first-in-first-served model as we’ve done in the past. This is due to the increasing popularity for elective placements through the University of Otago. There may be students who are unable to be matched but it’s not often that we’ve had to tell students that we couldn’t match them.

We will send out letters of offer for elective placements in the month following the application due date (for example, if your application due date was in September, the letters of offer will be coming out in October). We will also let you know if you have been unsuccessful in being matched.

If you receive a letter of offer, you will need to confirm acceptance with the elective fee payment of NZ$1,500 (GST inclusive) within 5 business days. A link to make this payment will be found in the email with your letter of offer. If payment will be coming through your university and you require an extension for the fee payment date, or if you require a short extension for another reason, please let us know. The elective payment is nonrefundable.

Thank you for your patience as we roll out our new elective programme processes.

Elective fee payment updates

Beginning from the Stream C1 2027 date block onwards, international students must pay a non-refundable application fee of NZ$150 (GST inclusive). Students will be asked to attach their payment receipt to their elective application as proof of payment.

Starting with the Stream C1 2027 cohort, the elective fee will change to NZ$1,650.

We will email those who register their interest with instructions for payment when this becomes available. Thank you for your patience!

Post-acceptance documentation

Documentation

After you have accepted your offer and paid the placement fee, we will send you a link to a secure portal to upload all your required documentation. If you have any questions about these documents, please email inboundelectives@otago.ac.nz

All documents must be in English.

All documents must be provided no later than eight weeks prior to the commencement of your placement, or the placement may be at risk of cancellation.

The Faculty of Medicine elective programme reserves the right to cancel a medical elective if there are concerns regarding the validity of the information provided by an applicant or should unsafe or unprofessional conduct occur during the elective.

Post-acceptance documentation checklist

Required documents:

1. Letter of good standing from home institution, OR evidence of a minimum grade point average of 3.0 on a four-point scale.
2. Confirmation of English language requirement:
   Applicants must meet one of the following prerequisite English language requirements (in line with Medical Council of New Zealand English language requirements):
   • Be completing a primary medical qualification where English is the sole language of instruction of that medical school.
   • Pass the Academic Module of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) by achieving a minimum of the following within one result, in the last two years:
     • Speaking 7.5
     • Listening 7.5
     • Writing 7.0
     • Reading 7.0
   • Pass the Medical module of the OET by achieving a minimum score of 350 in each of the four components (reading, writing, listening and speaking) within one result, in the last two years.
3. Proof of immunisation. This can be through vaccination records or through antibody serological testing.
   • MMR (measles, mumps, rubella)
   • VZV (Varicella/ Chickenpox)
   • Hepatitis B
   • Pertussis
4. Evidence of travel/health insurance.
5. Evidence of valid visa status:
   It is your responsibility to check the Immigration New Zealand website to confirm what is required for your visa. The University of Otago Faculty of Medicine cannot provide advice to international students regarding visas.
6. Evidence of medical indemnity insurance.
7. Criminal history check:
   Police clearance certificate issued by your country of domicile issued within the last 3 years. This should be an enhanced certificate which covers working with children and adults.

Frequently asked questions

What accommodation options are available?

Unfortunately, the University of Otago Faculty of Medicine does not have or offer any student accommodation. All accommodation, transportation, and living expenses are self-funded.

Many students find rentals or flatmates through Trade Me.

You may also want to check for any medical student Facebook groups to link in with the local students as they sometimes sublet their rooms while they are on elective placements out of their region.

When is my orientation?

Each hospital site runs their own orientation. Orientation will occur on the first day of your elective placement. Additionally, you will likely start integrating with your team on your first day so come prepared for a hands-on experience. The site coordinator at your hospital will be in touch with specifics prior to your start date.

What do I wear?

International students are expected to dress professionally (no jeans). In New Zealand we generally do not wear white jackets so please do not bring these. When you take part in some procedures, you will be asked to wear scrubs. These will be provided by the hospital so there is no need to bring your own unless you would like to.

Will my placement include weekends or nights?

This depends on your placement. Emergency department and intensive care unit placements may ask this of you. You will confirm your schedule with your supervisor after you have submitted all your required documentation.

What medical indemnity insurance is preferred?

We accept all medical indemnity insurance plans as these are usually supported and arranged through your home university. If this is something your university expects you to source on your own, the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association has recommendations for local providers.

What documentation will the University of Otago sign off on?

We can sign, date, and stamp your attendance record.

Supervisors cannot sign off on specific skills checklists, and they cannot provide summative assessments, or supervise research projects or audits.

We can provide a certificate of completion upon request.

Email inboundelectives@otago.ac.nz for a certificate.

I am studying medicine at the University of Auckland. Can I apply for a 5th-year selective or TI elective through Otago?

Yes, you can. You do not need to complete the full application process as listed above. Please email inboundelectives@otago.ac.nz directly for this process. Your dates will still need to fit within one of our date blocks.