Thank you for your enquiry.
Overseas Physiotherapy students are bound by the current New Zealand legislation
(the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003), where all physiotherapy
students are required to be supervised in their physiotherapy practice by a registered
physiotherapist who has been approved by either of the two schools of physiotherapy
at AUT University or Otago University. This includes supervision during any
elective clinical placements. All clinical placements are thus arranged by these two
schools. Overseas students are thus, by law, unable to arrange their own clinical
placements in New Zealand.
In recent times we have had overseas students undertake elective placements in New
Zealand, but these were stopped because of the administrative burden that it placed on
the staff at AUT. Added to this, there is an increasing shortage of clinical placements
for students in New Zealand and our clinical supervisors have contractual agreements
with the universities that naturally take precedence over applications for occasional
elective placements.
Having said that, we .welcome your inquiry and are beginning to re-establish some
links with clinical centres around the world whose students are eager to gain
experience of work in New Zealand.
Before proceeding further, we will need reassurance that you can meet the following
requirements:
1. That your academic department is aware of, and supports your application and
can provide a written reference and evidence of your academic progress to date
2. That your academic department can meet the full costs of your supervision while
in New Zealand, plus the costs of administering the application
3. That you can meet all the costs of travel, accommodation, living expenses during
your time in New Zealand
4. That you have personal and professional insurance that fully indemnifies you
while you practice as a student physiotherapist in New Zealand
5. That you have a plan for the placement that includes your study goals and the
reasons for seeking an overseas elective placement
If you are confident that you can satisfy these conditions, we would be happy with a
provisional assurance (via email or telephone) from your Head of Department in the
first instance to allow us to begin discussing the logistical arrangements from this end.
We will require all paperwork to be completed at least six weeks before your arrival.
Thank you again for your interest, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely
Dr David Nicholls PhD MA GradDipPhys NZSP
Head of Physiotherapy
School of Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy
Faculty of Health & Environmental Sciences
AUT University
Auckland
New Zealand
david.nicholls@aut.ac.nz
+64 (0)9 921 9999 x7064
+64 (0)9 921 9620 (fax)
+64 (0)21 920 460 (mobile)