In May, the Government announced an additional $25 million next year to fund 60 more first-year medical students, and promised future funding to increase places by 200 annually within five years.
Otago would get 24 of the places next year and the University of Auckland medical school 36, the Tertiary Education Commission confirmed this week.
No decisions had yet been made on how many additional places there would be in 2011 and beyond, or how they would be split between the two schools, commission spokesman Andy Cameron said.
The 2010 increase would take the number of places available at Otago for domestic trainee doctors to 234, up from 210 this year, University of Otago health sciences pro-vice-chancellor Prof Don Roberton said.
Domestic students are those born in New Zealand or with New Zealand citizenship.
"Otago looks forward to accepting these extra students in medicine, and has already made arrangements to meet the teaching and learning needs for all students entering their studies in medicine in 2010.
"They will form a very important addition to New Zealand's medical workforce when they graduate at the end of 2014," Prof Roberton said.
Places at Otago for New Zealand students had increased 38% in the past seven years, he said.
There were 170 first-year places available in 2003, 64 fewer than there would be next year.
The extra places would push the first-year domestic roll at the Auckland school to 191 next year, up from 155 this year, faculty of medicine and health sciences external relations manager Tim Green said.
Both schools also accept some foreign students whose fees are not subsidised by the New Zealand Government.
The Government said in its budget announcement it wanted to see 565 New Zealand doctors graduating annually from 2014.
It was not possible for either school to cope immediately with an extra 200 students a year, Mr Green said, as it would take time to hire more staff and organise clinical training placements for so many additional students.
