As India prepares for the next academic year and begins to welcome its newest batch of students, those applying for medical and dental seats and belonging to the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) category are in for a change, the primary one being a 40% hike in fees.

15% of the total available medical and dental seats are reserved for students applying as Non- Resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin (PIO), Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and foreigners. Another 5% is open to any candidate with a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test ranking. The fees for these individual seats range anywhere between $95,000 to a little over $100K plus $16,500 in registration fees. This amounts to an approximate 40% hike in the total fees for the ambitious NRI medical student alone. This is unfortunately, reflected in the dismal under-5% occupancy rate of these seats across all private and deemed colleges.

To add to these woes, these NRI student candidates will be eligible for the NRI quota only and cannot apply under the Management quota as was done in the past. Now, only Indian nationals will be allotted the medical and dental seats under the management cadre.  Should these very-expensive NRI seats go unfilled after the last round of admissions, it will be added to the general category with minimum management fees and local merit holders will be eligible to grab these. Interestingly, all students – be it NRIs, OCIs and local Indian nationals- applying for medical and dental colleges across India have to give a single entrance exam to qualify for a seat to these deemed medical universities and colleges.

In order to be eligible for the 15% NRI quota, applicants will have to submit documentation that supports their bonafide status-

• Copy of passport;
• Birth Certificate;
• Proof of citizenship;
• If OCI, proof of renunciation;
• Copy of Naturalization Certificate;
• Copy of PIO card;
• Copy of PAN card;
• Other documents as requested by individual admission offices.

Lastly, the Indian Union ministry of Health and Family Welfare has ruled against sponsoring a local student by a NRI relative. Previously, any NRI family member could sponsor an India-based student under this 15% NRI seat quota in private medical and dental colleges and deemed universities across the India. This has been banned with immediate effect. Per an order by the Supreme Court of India, only NRIs are eligible to take admission under the NRI quota and all vacant seats to be distributed to institutions with a list of unassigned candidates in the order of merit in the ratio of ten candidates for each vacant seat. Although this is great news for wanting local students who didn’t get a seat during initial counselling sessions, it would bring down the income for many of these academic institutions for whom the NRI fees was the biggest inflow of money.

To surmise –

• Single entrance exam for all medical colleges across India.
• 15% seats set aside for NRIs and OCIs applying for medical and dental seats.
• 40% increase in college tuition fees for NRIs.
• Only Non-resident Indians can apply for NRI quota seats in medical and dental    colleges across India.
• Indian nationals eligible for merit and management seats only.
• NRIs can’t sponsor kith and kin under the NRI quota, per orders from Supreme Court of India.
• If a seat remains vacant, it will be added to the general category with minimized fees.
• Majority of the seats under NRI quota remain vacant due to high fees.