The University of Otago, Wellington is one of four component schools that make up the University of Otago Medical School. All University of Otago medical students who gain entry after a competitive Health Sciences First Year programme, or who gain graduate entry, spend their second and third years studying in Dunedin in a programme called Early Learning in Medicine (ELM), which is jointly taught by the Dunedin School of Medicine and the School of Biomedical Sciences. In their fourth, fifth, and sixth years, medical students study at either Dunedin School of Medicine; the University of Otago, Christchurch; or the University of Otago, Wellington.
From 1924, students could complete their last year of training at hospitals in either Auckland, Christchurch, or Wellington as well as Dunedin. In 1938, a branch faculty was established in Christchurch, Auckland, and Wellington. The Wellington branch faculty became a 'clinical' school in 1977, the forerunner to the modern University of Otago, Wellington.
The University of Otago, Wellington is structured into nine academic departments: Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Primary Health Care and General Practice, Psychological Medicine, Public Health, Radiation Therapy, and Surgery and Anaesthesia.
Additional disciplines are taught in Dunedin and Christchurch.