Russia - popular study abroad destination for medical aspirants from India

After many Russian universities started offering English medium based courses since 2000, the number of Indian students heading to Russia for higher education has increased almost ten-fold, reports DNA. While only 120 to 130 Indian students went abroad to Russia for under-graduate and post-graduate studies in 2001-02, this number rose to 670 in 2010 and shot to 1,100 in 2012, according to data made available by EduRussia, the admission processing department of Russia State and Government Universities in India.Admissions for 2013 is currently on and is expected to cross 1,200, says EduRussia official.

The most popular courses are in medicine and dentistry with eight out of 10 Indian students opting for these. Of the 1,100 who went to Russia in 2012, 865 went to pursue medicine and dentistry, 235 for engineering courses. Russia's management or humanities are not popular among Indian students as these are not English medium courses.

"Medicine in Russia is a six-year course with an annual fee of approximately Rs 2.5 lakh. Engineering courses fees range from Rs 1.7 to 2.4 lakh," says Manoj Patki, director of EduRussia. This is almost 1/5th the education cost in the United States and United Kingdom. Even fees in private institutions in India are higher than that in Russia. "If one wants to study in the Russian medium, the cost becomes almost half, which suits the Indian budget. Also Russia offers a degree with European appendix, which allows students to seek admission in post-graduate courses and get jobs in other European countries after completion of the course."

The number of Indian students going to Russia is much smaller when compared those going to the U.S. and U.K. (which currently stand at 1 lakh and 33,000 respectively) but even this is a significant number considering the financial and political uncertainty Russia that faced after the disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991.

Russia has over 700 universities and this includes 50 dedicated medical institutions of which 12 offer English medium education. However,medical students are trained in the Russian language as they need to converse with the local people.

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