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Elective placements

Undertake an elective placement and enhance your clinical skills

Gain hands on clinical experience, broaden your specialised knowledge and develop your clinical and patient care skills with an elective placement at one of our six clinical schools across Sydney.

Please be advised that all available elective placement offerings have been filled for this year and the application portal is closed.

Applications for 2024 elective placements will open from July.

Elective placements

We welcome elective applications from international and Australian medical students in their final or penultimate years of medical studies. Elective placements are provided on the basis that they are “clinical electives”, which do not fulfill course requirements for experience in specific disciplines.

Electives are offered for a duration of 4 or 8 weeks. Please note that we are unable to offer elective placements to students from universities where the majority of teaching is delivered online as students are expected to have a reasonable amount of prior experience in taking histories and examining patients in a clinical setting.

Available placements

The full list of Clinical Schools and the areas of interest that are offered can be found in the application form. 

Students can only be offered and placed in one specialisation/discipline. Placement cannot be split between multiple hospitals or units. Placements are subject to availability and will be arranged via a participating Clinical School.

For rural site elective applications please follow the instructions provided on their webpages.

You must submit an application a minimum of 6 months prior to placement.

To apply, please complete our online application form.

Once a placement is confirmed we will process your application, this may take up to 6 weeks. A letter of confirmation will be emailed to you.

Student Compliance documents will then need to be submitted 3 months prior to the placement start date.

Additional documents to be provided with the application:

For your application to be processed please provide the following documents as a single pdf file, using your Given name, Family Name and Home University as the file name:

  • A letter of good standing from a Dean or Head of Clinical School - dated within the last 12 months & must include an English proficiency statement and be stamped by the home institution.
  • Written proof from your University or other appropriate body that you are covered by insurance for medical indemnity and public liability while doing your elective in Australia - sent with a certified English translation if necessary
  • AUD$200 Application fee receipt

NSW Health Student Compliance
Three months prior to placement you will need to provide documents to confirm your student compliance.

It is a requirement that ALL students (domestic and international) are required to provide verification documents to Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) for verification.

Please refer to SHLD - Student Compliance for reference and forms.

  • Prohibited employment declaration 
  • NSW Health code of conduct agreement
  • Australian National Police Check from Australian Federal Police (AFP). Must be dated within 12 months of the last day of your elective
  • Criminal record check (for students studying overseas). Must be dated within 12 months of the last day of your elective. Online or local checks are not accepted.
  • Vaccination record card. Every single entry must be signed and stamp by your GP otherwise paperwork will not be accepted) including serology (must be in English). The NSW Vaccination card is to be completed by a health professional, it must be signed AND have the practice stamp affixed to it so it is a legal and valid entry.
  • Student Undertaking/Declaration – Appendix 6
  • TB Assessment Tool – Appendix 7
  • Hepatitis B Declaration - Appendix 9. Appendix 9 only required if the Hepatitis B vaccination record is not available.
  • Blood Borne Virus Declaration

Application and elective fees are payable online at OneStop via Visa or Mastercard. Processing of your application will not be undertaken without receipt of application fee. Elective fee payment is required within two weeks of receiving a placement offer

  • Non-refundable Application fee: $200
  • Elective fee (4 weeks): $900
  • Elective fee (5 - 8 weeks): $1,300
  • Elective fee (9 weeks or more): $500 per week*

* Elective periods longer than 8 weeks in duration are subject to availability and approval by the relevant clinical school. 

We generally do not grant refunds if you have to cancel your placement unless your reasons for cancellation are deemed exceptional. If granted, only the elective fee will be refunded and the amount refunded will be based on your date of notification.

Date of notification

Refund amount

Six or more months prior to the start date of your placement

75% of the elective fee

Less than six months and more than three months prior to the start date of your placement

50% of the elective fee

Three months or less to the start of your placement

No refund

  • The elective placement needs to be a requirement of your degree and students must have a minimum of 12 months of clinical experience prior to the start of the placement.
  • Acceptance by the Clinical School is at the discretion of the Head of School and subject to load and other local considerations.
  • All elective placements must be coordinated via the Clinical School and students should not apply directly to a potential supervisor or department head.
  • Elective placements cannot occur during December and February, due to staffing restrictions. Exact dates will be on the availability sheet when released.
  • The Clinical School reserves the right to cancel an elective placement if any information provided is incorrect or misleading.
  • We do not offer formal assessments to elective students. 
  • The Clinical School will only sign forms provided by students to certify that they have “the same practical (or clinical) rights and responsibilities as local students.'' If your University does not accept this statement, please do NOT submit your application.
  • Students are responsible for their own travel and living expenses. Travel concessions are not available to international students (NSW Government policy).
  • Students are responsible for their own travel, health and indemnity insurance.
  • Accommodation arrangements are subject to Clinical School rules and availability.

 

For students to benefit from their placements they are required to have a minimum English level or IELTS 7 or TOEFL IBT 96. It Is assumed that students from non-English speaking countries will have an advanced level of English proficiency both written and spoken before commencing elective placement.

Your university should include in their letter of good standing a paragraph on your English ability: either the language of instruction for your studies is entirely in English; or that they are happy that your English ability is sufficient for you to gain an acceptable level of experience and skills from your elective placement, to satisfy their elective criteria.

It is the responsibility of the overseas applicant to contact their nearest Australian Consulate with respect to visa requirements. A tourist visa will allow entry and stay in Australia for the purpose of study/training for a period of up to 3 months.

We have an Accommodation Service department located on the main campus to help students find off-campus accommodation.

They maintain an extensive database of accommodation in various areas (but primarily close to the University or within easy access to public transport). More information can be found on the website of the University of Sydney Accommodation Service.

Clinical Schools offering accommodation:

Nepean Clinical School

  • Nepean Hospital
    The Nepean student accommodation units are located at 29-33 Rodgers Street, Kingswood, a 5-minute walk from the hospital. The units have 2-3 bedrooms each and are fully furnished with heaters, kitchen appliances, linen and a coin-operated laundry on-site.
 
 
 

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