Admission to Russian varsities is looking up

Admission to Russian universities has picked up after a six - year low following the amendment of the Indian Medical Council Act in March 2002.
This was evident from a two - day exhibition on the Russian universities jointly organized by the Russian Cultural Centre and Study Abroad Education Consultants (SAEC) here during the weekend. According to the organisers, at least 235 students had applied for higher studies in Russia during the exhibition.

More than 60 percent of the applicants have applied for the MBBS course, the Organisers said. Counselling and spot admissions were held during the exhibition and 12 students were gievn spot admissions to the Kursk State Medical University and the Tomsk Polytechnical University.
" These two universities had sent direct representatives who could issue admissions on the spot," said C Ravichandran, Managing Director , SAEC.
" The remaining admissions will be processed in the regular fashion and the students will be informed of the results.

Until last year , only 11 universities offering MBBS were recognised by the Indian Government.But following the ammendment, Indian students could seek admission to any Government university in Russia which is listed in the directory of medical schools of the World Health Organisation.

Fee structure
The cost of doing MBBS in Russia is five to ten times less when compared to the Us and the UK, " said Ravichandran.
The fee structure for theMBBS course in Russia varies from US$2,000 -3,000 ( roughly Rs.94,000 to Rs.1.5 lakh ) a year based on the university, while the fee for the engineering course is around $ 2,000 per year.

Requirements
Students who finish medicine in Russia will have to pass a screening test before they are allowed to practise in India.
Also , it is only the leading universities in Russia which offer a medical degree in English .
Another aspect that should be noted is that all foreign students will have to undergo one year preparatory course in Russian language.