Medical Electives

The below instructions are to apply for Turing Funding after your placement has been accepted by your medical elective host institution and Newcastle University medical school. We will review applications on a rolling basis.

You need to submit your Elective Proposal and Risk Assessment via the Medical School's internal student system - the ‘Medical Learning Environment’ (MLE) in the first instance.

If you have not already done so, please refer to the Medical Elective handbook or contact the Medical Electives Team at the Medical Student Office for guidance. The MLE also provides information about past elective host institutes and elective opportunities. 

• Only students who meet one or more points of our Widening Participation Criteria are eligible. These are:
• you have an annual household income of £40,000 or less
• this must be registered with Student Finance 
• you are a care leaver or are care-experienced
• you are a recognised carer or have caring responsibilities 
• you are an estranged young person
• you either: have refugee status or are an asylum seeker
• your ethnicity is under-represented at Newcastle University, and you attended a UK state-funded school as the last educational establishment before attending Newcastle university 

• Select ONE elective: Only one overseas elective is eligible for Turing funding. You must carefully choose which of the two electives you wish to receive funding for. The elective you choose must take place at one institution, in one country.

• The elective you choose must be a minimum of 14 consecutive days at one institution. The elective must take place between 1 September 2026 and 31 August 2027.
• Electives that are shorter than 14 days or fall outside of the above dates will not qualify for funding under the Turing scheme at Newcastle University.

• If you are eligible, you will need to apply via Terra Dotta, GO’s online placement management system.
• Please only apply if you are doing an elective abroad and meet one of the above eligibility criteria.

You may be eligible for up to four separate grants to support your overseas medical elective:

• Contribution to Living Costs
• Travel Funding
• Readiness to Travel
• SEND Grant

You can find out more about these below.

The Contribution to Living Costs is calculated based on where you are going. Countries are split into two groups depending on the general cost of living in that area. Group 1 is for a higher cost of living and group 2 is for a lower cost of living. Check the list of destinations and grant rates here. 

The rate you will receive depends on the group your destination country is in and the length of your placement. Students receive the amount indicated for each day of the placement (including days 1-14).

Contribution to Living Costs - Widening Participation Rates

Students who meet the Widening Participation Criteria will also receive a contribution towards travel costs, for one return journey to the placement destination. You will receive a set amount based on your destination - check the list of destinations and travel funding rates. 

To claim the travel grant, you must submit proof of your actual expenses. You will upload the required documents to a questionnaire called Turing Travel Grant - Evidence of Travel in Terra Dotta (our admissions system). The Global Opportunities Team will review the evidence and either approve your submission or request further information. The following documents will be accepted as evidence of travel:

• a booking email with a ticket attached
• an invoice or receipt for booking
• a booking email and proof of payment from your bank

The travel grant is usually paid in two instalments, the first to contribute to your outbound travel and the second to contribute to your travel home. The second payment will only be made once we have received your Certificate of Attendance.

Submission Dates

Submissions for Travel Grants will be reviewed and paid during the below periods:

• 13th July 2026 - 15th September 2026 (Full year and semester 1)
• 15th November 2026 - 15th January 2027 (Full year, semester 1 and semester 2)
• 15th March 2027 - 15th May 2027 (Full year and Semester 2)

Students who meet the Widening Participation Criteria can also apply for Readiness to Travel funding, which helps with the cost of preparing to travel up to £750 per placement. These costs are:

• passports
• visa applications and reasonable associated costs such as translated documents, travel to appointments, police certificates and health insurance
• vaccines
• medical certificates/exams

To claim back for your costs, you must submit proof of your actual expenses. You will upload evidence of your expenditure to a questionnaire called Outgoing - Turing - Readiness to Travel Grant in Terra Dotta (our admissions system). The Global Opportunities Team will review the evidence and either approve your submission or request further information. The following documents will be accepted as evidence of expenditure:

• a receipt or invoice
• a word or PDF document with a clear file name 

Please note, you can only submit this request once, so please ensure you have gathered all eligible costs for reimbursement.

Submission Dates

Submissions for Readiness to Travel Grants will be reviewed and paid during the below periods:

• 13th July 2026 - 15th September 2026 (Full year and semester 1)
• 15th November 2026 - 15th January 2027 (Full year, semester 1 and semester 2)
• 15th March 2027 - 15th May 2027 (Full year and Semester 2)

This funding is aimed to support students with SEND, ALN and ASN with additional costs that they may incur during their placements abroad, up to £450. 

Examples of things you can claim for would be:

• A pre-placement check visit 
• Additional costs for accessible accommodation     
• Medical certificates   
• Additional travel/medical insurance   
• Additional transport costs

To claim your costs, you must submit proof of your actual expenses. You will upload evidence of your expenditure to a questionnaire called Outgoing - Turing - Extra Funding for SEND, ALN and ASN students in Terra Dotta (our admissions system). The Global Opportunities Team will review the evidence and either approve your submission or request further information. The following documents will be accepted as evidence of expenditure:

• a receipt or invoice
• a word or PDF document with a clear file name 

Please note, you can only submit this request once, so please ensure you have gathered all eligible costs for reimbursement.

Submission Dates

Submissions for the SEND Grant will be reviewed and paid during the below periods:

• 13th July 2026 - 30th November 2026 (Full year and semester 1)
• 4th January 2026 - 16th April 2027 (full year and semester 2)

Do not start the below process until your elective has been approved by the Medical Electives team.

• Apply through Terra Dotta using this link. Ensure that you are applying for the ‘Medical Electives – Semester 2 2027’ programme.
• Complete the following mandatory information by 30^th November 2026:
  • planned placement dates
  • UK bank account details
  • medical elective confirmation (this can be a letter or an email)

We are unable to calculate your grant without these details.

Receiving your grant agreement

A Grant Agreement is a contract between you the funding provider that outlines your obligations and your provisional grant entitlement.

Once we have received the information above, we will issue your Grant Agreement. The amount in your Grant Agreement is calculated based on your planned placement dates.

We will send the Grant Agreement to your Newcastle University email address (usually on Thursday's). This needs to be signed and uploaded to Terra Dotta. No payments will be made unless this agreement has been signed and uploaded. 

Once you have digitally signed the Grant Agreement, we will start to issue your payments. Please note, payments are requested on Mondays and you will receive a payment notification email to your Newcastle University email address. It could take up to 15 working days from the payment notification for the grant to reach your bank account.

Contribution to Living Costs payments

You will receive this in two instalments - 70% on receipt/upload of your signed grant agreement and the remaining on completion of your placement and receipt of required documents.

Travel Funding

You can submit outbound and return travel separately or together. Once reviewed, each claim will be paid in full within the application periods.

Readiness to Travel and Extra Funding for students with SEND

Once reviewed, each claim will be paid in full within the application periods.

After completing your placement, you must upload a Certificate of Attendance to Terra Dotta. The deadline to submit your Certificate of Attendance is 5 April 2027. You can find a template of this certificate in Terra Dotta.

The Certificate of Attendance verifies your actual placement dates.

Once your Certificate of Attendance has been approved by our team, we recalculate your Contribution to Living Costs grant entitlement based on your actual placement dates.

Grants are only payable for the actual dates of your placement. Placements can sometimes be longer or shorter than planned, so your overall grant entitlement may be different from what was included in your grant agreement.

• if your duration is shorter, your grant entitlement will also be reduced, and you may: (a) not receive a further payment, or (b) be asked to make a partial repayment to us
• if your duration is longer, your grant entitlement will be increased and we will pay the remainder for this. If your placement is considerably longer than originally planned, you must tell Global Opportunities immediately so we can check if we're able to provide more funding.

If you are entitled to a final payment, we will issue it along with a payment notification. It could take up to 15 days from receiving the payment notification for the funds to enter your bank account.

If you fail to submit any of the required documentation, we will cancel your grant and issue a full reclaim for any payments that you have already received from us.