Russian educational fair comes to city this weekend with 10,000 medical seats

Chennai: City students can explore colleges in Russia at the two-day All India Russian Education Fair 2026-27 set to be organized in the city this weekend.Eight institutions will take part in the event, where spot admissions for MBBS and other programmes will be available. A total of 10,000 MBBS seats are being offered. The fair will also feature institutions offering courses in bio-technology, artificial intelligence and data science. Over 200 students can qualify for a 100% scholarship."Students from India have been studying at Russian universities for the past 60 years. Russia continues to be the top choice for Indian students seeking medical education abroad," Valerii Khodzhaev, consul general of the Russian Federation in Chennai, said at a press conference on Wednesday.Indian students who have cleared National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) with a minimum of 50% marks in the relevant core subjects/degrees (40% in the case of SC/ST and OBC students), can apply for MBBS courses. Tamil-medium students can also apply. Qualifying exams such as CET and IELTS are not needed for admission to Russian universities.The universities participating in the education fair include: Volgograd State Medical University, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow; Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad; Kazan State Medical University; North Caucasus Federal University, Stavropol; Moscow Aviation Institute; and Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University. "The total fee could be as low as 3.5 lakh per annum. There are over 300,000 international students from 200 different countries enrolled in the 600-odd govt universities across Russia. A majority of students are from India. The aim is to increase this number to 5,00,000 by 2030," said Ravi Chandran, managing director, Study Abroad Educational Consultants.The fair is also scheduled to be held at other places in Tamil Nadu—from 10am and 5pm at Hotel Royal Court in Madurai on May 12; at Hotel Femina in Trichy on May 13; at GRT Hotel Zibe in Salem on May 14; and at The Grand Regent Hotel in Coimbatore on May 15. Entry is free. For information, call 92822 21221.