Russia is offering as many as 10,000 MBBS seats for Indian students. An announcement to that effect was made at the press meet organized to announce the All-India Russian Education Fair being held at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Chennai.

The universities participating in the Education Fair include Volgograd State Medical University, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kazan State Medical University, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow Aviation Institute and Moscow State Regional University among others. Russia is the only foreign country, at present, that complies with the National Medical Commission of India’s latest norms set for medical education overseas.

The courses, which are subsidised by the government, cost around Rs 3 lakh per annum (tuition). Indian students who have cleared National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and who have a minimum of 50% marks in the relevant core subjects/degrees (in the case of SC/ST and OBC students, the minimum marks is 40%), can apply for MBBS courses in Russia. There are no pre-qualifying exams such as CET, IELTS for admissions to universities in Russia.

Valerii Khodzhaev, Consul General, Russian Federation in Chennai said, “Russian universities have a long-standing reputation of providing high-quality medical education in the world. Students from India have been admitted to Russian universities for the last 60 years. Russia continues to be the top choice for Indian students seeking medical education abroad, as Russian universities proactively adhere to the changing norms and guidelines of India’s National Medical Commission (NMC) to ensure that their MBBS programmes are well recognised in India.”

Alexander Dodonov, Vice Consul and Director of the Russian House, added that the Russian government would provide scholarships to 200 Indian students once again this year. These scholarships will cover the costs for undergraduate and postgraduates courses at leading Russian universities.

According to Ravi Chandran, MD of Study Abroad Educational Consultants, more than 300,000 international students from 200 different countries enrolled in the 600-odd government universities across Russia. Medicine is the most popular area of study among Indian students who choose to pursue their higher education in Russia. Currently, there are about 25,000 Indian students studying medicine in about 30 Russian universities that offer MD, a degree equivalent to MBBS in India.