The Visiting Student Elective Programme is currently closed.
The Visiting Student Elective Programme offers short term, observational placements, for UK and International medical students, in their final year of study. Students are placed with a consultant team working within our partner NHS hospitals and spend their time shadowing and experiencing typical days in a specific medical specialty.
The Barts Health NHS Trust are a group of five hospitals who provide a vast range of clinical services to people in East London and beyond. Further information about the Barts Health NHS Trust can be found via their website - Barts Health
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust provides a full range of general acute, outpatient and diagnostic services to people living in West Essex, East Hertfordshire, the towns of Harlow, Bishop’s Stortford & Epping. Further information about The Princess Alexandra Hospital can be found via their website - Princess Alexandra Hospital
Pre-hospital Care and Emergency Medicine - Our Pre-hospital Care and Emergency Medicine Elective Placements are administered in exactly the same way as our other specialties. For further information about Pre-Hospital Care & Emergency Medicine, please visit - Medical Students | London's Air Ambulance (londonsairambulance.org.uk)
The Visiting Electives Programme opens for applications 3 times a year. The time you should apply depends on when you would like to undertake your Elective Placement. The application round is for applicants to complete the online application form and make the payment required.
Application attempts made outside of these times or arranged with a consultant without making an application or paying fees, would not be considered. If you have already approached an individual, you can provide this on your application.
We also do not allow for any overlap of dates or split Elective Placements, nor re-application if you are unsuccessful or withdraw at any point during the Electives process. Unfortunately, we do not currently participate in the Erasmus+ programmes.
We make every effort to accept as many Elective Students as possible, however as Placements are limited, not all applicants will receive offers, or be placed within their first choice of specialty. Applications are reviewed in the order received on a first come, first served basis and availability depends on the popularity of a particular specialty, as well as consultant availability.
Applicants must meet the following criteria to be eligible for an Elective placement:
Due to the volume of applications we receive, you would need to ensure that you include the following documents with your application upon submission. Failure to do so, will result in your application being immediately rejected.
Please refer to the below, our FAQs and the Electives Handbook [PDF 521KB] before applying, for more detailed information on what is required.
All required documentation must be received via the online application form. If you have any issues with the form within the application round, please email smd-incoming-electives@qmul.ac.uk in the first instance.
IMPORTANT NOTE: All elective placements are offered purely for observational purposes, in order to comply with occupational health and immigration requirements.
Once you have submitted your application, this will be processed by the Electives Team at Queen Mary, University of London. This is to ensure that if successful you'll have access to QMUL services and facilities during your placement.
On your application, you are required to select five specialties within the Hospital Trusts we have to offer. Once the initial assessment is complete, your application will then be forwarded to relevant hospital staff who, where possible, will allocate you to the specialty of your choice, by contacting the relevant consultant. If your first choice is not available, we will endeavour to allocate you to your alternative choices. Please refer to the 'Dates & Elective Availability' tab regarding the minimum and maximum period lengths and ensure that you select five different specialties as explained above.
If the consultant agrees to accept you, an official email will be sent to you confirming you are a successful applicant for the elective placement, to which you will have 10 working days to accept or decline.
This confirmation email will include information with important details and deadlines to be adhered to in order to undertake an Elective Placement with us. Failure to accept and adhere to the confirmation requirements may result in your Elective Placement being delayed or offer being withdrawn. The School reserves the right to withdraw its offer to you depending on medical or immigration advice.
Upon the acknowledgement of acceptance, a further email will be sent to you, inviting you to pre-enrol, closer to the time of your placement. This process requests preliminary contact information from you which helps speed up the enrolment process on your first day. Students will not be allowed to attend an Elective Placement until they have received clearance from the Occupational Health Team and have been fully enrolled.
It can take up to 6-8 weeks for us to confirm an Elective Placement, post the application round closure and acknowledgment of receipt. We have put in place decision deadlines, so you know approximately what the latest date that you’ll hear from us. Due to the volume of applications, it may be that a decision is not received by the decision deadline, however this will be communicated to you as early as possible.
Applications Open
Applications Close
Decision Deadline
19th August 2024
25th August 2024
25th October 2024
21st October 2024
27th October 2024
27th December 2024
9th December 2024
15th December 2024
14th February 2025
Elective Placements must start on a Monday and end on a Friday and are offered for the following period lengths from the following NHS Trusts:
Barts Health NHS Trust are taking on students for a maximum of 4-week Elective Placements. Elective Placements must start on the first date of each block listed below. Inductions will only occur on these dates. Elective Placements can be finished earlier than the below end dates.
The Trust are not in the position to accommodate split Electives, date overlap or students whose Elective Placement falls outside the application periods. Please note that only 25 Elective places are available for Barts Health NHS Trust, for each application round.
Elective Placements at Barts Health NHS Trust are as follows:
Barts Health NHS Trust are not accepting Elective Placements between the months of August – December.
Princess Alexandra Hospital are taking on students for Elective Placements between 2-8 weeks. Placements must start on any Monday within the blocks listed but must finish on a Friday. 8-week placements can be taken at any time during the Blocks listed but must not overlap.
The Trust are not in the position to accommodate split Electives, date overlap or students whose Elective Placement falls outside the application period.
Elective Placements at Princess Alexandra Hospital are as follows:
Princess Alexandra Hospital are not accepting Elective Placements between the months of October and February.
Pre-Hospital Care & Emergency Medicine are taking on students for Elective Placements between 4-6 weeks. Placements must start on a Monday and finish on a Friday. 6-week placements can be taken at any time during the Blocks listed but must not overlap.
The Trust are not in the position to accommodate split Electives, date overlap or students whose Elective Placement falls outside this period.
Elective Placements with Pre-Hospital Care & Emergency Medicine are as follows:
Upon submitting your application, you will be directed to make payment for the Administration Fee. Payment is to be made during the application rounds, payment received outside of these times will not be considered. Please note that the fee must be paid online via the correct channel.
We cannot accept cheques or bank transfers, nor do we accept applications where payment is not made or paid for via the correct payment channel.
The elective fee is made up of a £300 administration fee, and a £550 standard elective fee for 2-4 weeks. Additional weeks up to 8 weeks are charged at £50 per week.
The Administration Fee is non-refundable, but you may be eligible for a Placement Fee refund if you are unable to attend.
The Placement Fee is required once we have made an offer of placement to you.
Please review our Incoming Elective Refund Policy [PDF 191KB] for further details.
The grid below should help you work out how much you need to pay.
Incomplete applications received will be rejected automatically and you will lose the £300 Administration Fee.
The upcoming application round will open on Monday 19th August 2024 at 10:00AM (UK Time) and close on Sunday 27th August at 15:00PM (UK Time), for placements between January & February (Barts Health NHS Trust only), March & April (Princess Alexandra only) or January - April 2025 (Pre-Hospital Care & Emergency Medicine only).
You may apply for Electives in the following specialties within the following Trusts:
Barts Health NHS Trust:
Princess Alexandra Hospital:
The following specialties are offered at both NHS Trusts:
Please note Internal Medicine is not offered as an elective placement.
Pre-Hospital Care & Emergency Medicine are administered in the same way as our other specialties. Visit - Medical Students | London's Air Ambulance (londonsairambulance.org.uk) for more information.
Dental Electives: Please note that the Dental electives administered by the Dental Institute are currently suspended for the foreseeable future. Any queries can be forwarded to dentistry@qmul.ac.uk.
If you reside outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland, you will need an appropriate visa to enter the UK and undertake your Elective. For the latest general advice on applying for a visa, please see - QMUL - Which visa should I apply for? and https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa for further information.
For additional advice, please visit the Advice & Counselling Service
Once you have accepted our offer of an Elective Placement, you will be invited to complete pre-enrolment online closer to the time of your placement. Pre-enrolment takes around 15 minutes to complete, which involves you checking the information we have for you is correct.
In order to be fully enrolled and collect your Student ID at Queen Mary, University of London and to collect your ID and lanyard at the hospital you are placed at, you must complete pre-enrolment as soon as you receive the email.
You are no longer required to provide documentation when you collect your ID at QMUL as this is now completed online. Failure to complete pre-enrolment will mean you will be unable to begin your Elective Placement. Information on when and where to collect your ID card will be provided to you once fully enrolled.
For more information and a list of commonly asked questions, please view our FAQs.