Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University: MBBS Fees, Hostel, NEET Cut-Off and Admission for Indian Students

Prepared by the Edumapple admissions team, Kakkanad, Kerala· Updated 15 October 2026· How we check facts

Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University (SPbSPMU) is a public medical university in Russia's second city. Its 2025-26 price list gives 497,200 roubles (about ₹5.6 lakh) for the first year of General Medicine taught with an intermediary language, but the Indian record in FMGE is thin: 4 of 58 candidates passed in 2022–2025. Here are the fees, the FMGE results year by year, the hostel questions and what to ask before you apply.

Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University at a glance

Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University, known by its Russian initials as SPbGPMU or in English as SPbSPMU and often searched as St Petersburg Pediatric University, is a federal state budgetary institution under the Russian Ministry of Health. It is a public university, not a private college. Wikipedia gives 1925 as the founding year, when it began as the Leningrad Pediatric Medical Institute. It has also been called the St Petersburg State Pediatric Medical Institute and Academy. The address on the official site is Litovskaya Street 2, Saint Petersburg 194100, in the north of the city.

The name suggests a school that teaches only pediatrics. The price list we read for foreign citizens includes the specialist programme 31.05.01 General Medicine, which is the MBBS-equivalent degree, in two lines: one "with an intermediary language" and one in Russian. The official website is gpmu.org, and we did not find a separate English-language website for foreign applicants. The university also publishes a template contract for foreigners in English.

We found no official count of Indian students or of students from Kerala, and no WDOMS listing that we could verify. The FMGE reports tell their own story: between 2022 and 2025 only 58 SPbSPMU graduates appeared, which is a very small Indian group compared with the big Volga and Urals universities.

Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University fees for Indian students

The university sets its tuition in roubles. Its price list for 2025/26, approved by the academic council on 28 April 2025 and in force from 1 August 2025, has a table for foreign citizens. For the specialist programme General Medicine with an intermediary language, it gives these prices by course for the year 2025/26:

The Russian-language General Medicine line for foreigners is lower: 435,000 roubles (about ₹4.9 lakh) in the first year and 364,800 in the second. The price list is a document for all years of study in 2025/26. The lines for the second to sixth year are the prices charged to students who are already in those courses, not a promise of what a new entrant of 2026 will pay later, so we do not add them into a six-year total. A new student should ask the university for a contract that states the price for each year.

SPbSPMU fee structure 2025-26

The table above multiplies the first-year fee by six, which is a simple way to compare universities; it is not what the price list says. If the later-year prices in the list stay in the same proportion, the real six-year total could be lower, but they could also move with inflation. Treat ₹5.6 lakh a year as the starting point and keep a reserve of 10–20% for fee increases and the rouble-rupee rate. A 2026 listing on an aggregator website shows 450,000 roubles; we could not verify it against a university document, so we do not use it.

For a Kerala family the fee is in the middle of the range: a Kerala government MBBS seat costs about ₹23,150 a year in tuition, a self-financing seat about ₹8.1 lakh a year (one college's 2025-26 provisional fee was ₹8,10,175) and an NRI seat about ₹22.7 lakh a year. SPbSPMU is cheaper than the self-financing seat on tuition, but the other costs of living in Saint Petersburg, one of the dearer cities in Russia, are higher than in a regional city.

Compare SPbSPMU with other universities on the MBBS in Russia fees page.

Living cost in Saint Petersburg

Beyond tuition and hostel, a student's monthly budget in Saint Petersburg is made of food, a mobile plan and internet, local transport (the metro opened in 1955), study material and winter clothing. The cost of living is generally higher than in most Russian cities. We have no verified monthly figures, so we give none; ask senior Indian students for their actual spend and for the cost of a private room if no hostel place is kept for you.

SPbSPMU hostel and hostel fees

We found no official hostel fee and no official description of rooms for foreign students at SPbSPMU. One aggregator mentions a figure, but it is not tied to a university document, so we do not quote it. Ask the international office, in writing, for the fee, the room type, how many students share, the kitchen arrangements, the distance to the classes and hospitals, and whether a place is kept for all six years. In a large city a missing hostel place can mean renting privately, which costs more.

Families also ask about the girls hostel at SPbSPMU. Russian university residences usually allocate rooms or floors by gender, but the rules differ. Ask how female students are placed and what security there is at the entrance.

NEET cut-off and eligibility for SPbSPMU

We found no NEET cut-off set by SPbSPMU above the national qualifying score. What you need is the NEET-UG qualifying score for your category, because without it an Indian graduate cannot sit FMGE:

• NEET-UG: qualified, result valid for three years. In NEET-UG 2026 the qualifying score was 213 out of 720 for general and EWS, 194 for general PwBD and 177 for SC, ST and OBC (the 3 May exam was cancelled after a paper leak and re-held on 21 June 2026; the result came on 16 July 2026). In 2025 it was 144, 127 and 113.
• Class 12: Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English, with at least 50% in PCB (40% for reserved categories).
• Age: 17 by 31 December of the admission year.

The university may hold an entrance test or interview for foreign applicants; the format is not published in the sources we read. There is no published acceptance rate. Given the very low FMGE record below, a student with a weak NEET score should think hard before choosing any university where few graduates pass. See the full eligibility and documents list.

Admission process at Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University

1. Apply and send documents

   Send scans of your passport, Class 10 and 12 mark sheets and NEET score card to the university's international office, directly or through us.

2. Admission letter and contract

   The university checks the documents and issues an admission letter and a contract. Read it for the fee for each year, the language of instruction, the hostel and the internship.

3. Invitation and visa

   The university applies for your study invitation from the Russian migration authorities. With it you apply for the student visa; the nearest Russian consulate to Kerala is in Chennai.

4. Travel to Saint Petersburg

   Fly to Moscow through a Gulf hub or Delhi and continue by air or train, or check whether your airline reaches Pulkovo Airport directly. The university completes your migration registration after arrival.

Groups for foreign students usually start in September. Apply soon after the NEET result, because the invitation and visa take several weeks. The general admission process page explains documents, apostille through NORKA Roots and the visa in detail.

Ranking and recognition: SPbSPMU ranking

Families search for the Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University ranking. We found no ranking of the university in the global lists for medicine and no ranking claim on its official pages, so we show none. A ranking says little about what matters to an Indian student. Three things matter more:

• NMC rules. The degree is valid in India only if the course meets the NMC Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations 2021: at least 54 months of study in English, a 12-month internship at the same university, and eligibility for a licence to practise in Russia. The NMC keeps no list of approved universities, so ask SPbSPMU for written confirmation of each point. See NMC rules.
• World Directory of Medical Schools. We could not verify the listing; search for the university in WDOMS yourself and note the languages of instruction it gives.
• FMGE results, below, which show how its Indian graduates actually do.

FMGE passing percentage of Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University

NBEMS publishes FMGE results for every foreign university. The SPbSPMU record is very weak. In 2021, 0 of 19 passed. In 2022, 0 of 15 passed against a Russian average of 26.0%; in 2023, 0 of 14 against 19.4%; in 2024, 1 of 11 (9.1%) against 29.5%. In June 2025, 1 of 8 passed (12.5%) against 18.1%, and in December 2025 2 of 10 (20.0%) against 30.9%. Over 2022–2025 combined, 4 of 58 candidates passed, which is 6.9%, against a Russian combined figure of about 25%.

The groups are small, 8 to 19 candidates a session, so one student changes the percentage by several points, and with fewer than 300 candidates in four years the university is not in our ranking of larger universities. Small numbers also mean the pass rate is not noise alone: it was below the Russian average in every session. A low pass rate can reflect a small Indian cohort, the language of teaching, or how many graduates choose to practise elsewhere. Ask the university and its Indian alumni, and plan your own FMGE preparation from the middle of the course. The older "MCI passing ratio" is the same exam. See the FMGE pass rate page and the ranking by FMGE results.

Safety in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is about 630 km from Moscow, far from the Ukrainian border, and is not one of the regions in the August 2024 advisory. In that month the Indian Embassy in Moscow advised Indians in the Bryansk, Belgorod and Kursk regions to take precautions and relocate temporarily. We found no published report of an incident involving SPbSPMU's students. The war has meant drone strikes and short airport closures in cities far from the border, so a family should stay current. What we suggest:

• Check the current advisory at mea.gov.in before travel and before each return from holidays.
• Register with the Indian Embassy in Moscow after arrival and keep its numbers in the phone.
• Ask the university what the hostel's entry control and emergency arrangements are.
• Never accept a job or "contract" offer that involves the Russian military.

Life in Saint Petersburg for Kerala students

Saint Petersburg has about 5.6 million people (2021 census) and is the second-largest city in Russia. It has a metro, museums, long summer "white nights" when the sky does not get fully dark, and a mild-for-Russia climate: the January mean is about −5 °C and the July mean about 19 °C. Winters are still cold, so a good winter coat, waterproof boots and thermals matter. The first autumn and winter are the hard part for students from Kerala.

We have no verified information on Indian groceries, restaurants or the size of the Malayali group in the city. Ask the university for contacts of current Indian students, and ask us to connect you with a Malayalam-speaking counsellor. Most students cook in a hostel or flat kitchen.

Where SPbSPMU is: distance to Moscow and how to reach Saint Petersburg from Kerala

Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University is in the north of Saint Petersburg, in north-west Russia. The distance from Saint Petersburg to Moscow is about 630 km in a straight line. The nearest airport is Pulkovo Airport (LED), which is operating. A flight from Moscow takes about 1.5 hours, and the Sapsan high-speed train takes about 3 hours 40 minutes to 4 hours.

From Kerala there is no direct flight to Russia. The usual route is Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram or Kozhikode to Moscow through Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Doha or Delhi, then a domestic flight or the Sapsan. Saint Petersburg uses Moscow time, which is two and a half hours behind India. Read more on the universities page and the map of all cities.

Scholarships, syllabus and courses

We found no SPbSPMU scholarship that cuts tuition for Indian students. The Russian government offers a limited number of state-funded places to foreign citizens each year through its quota programme, applied for on education-in-russia.com; competition is high and places in medicine are few. Indian families should plan to pay the full fee.

The General Medicine syllabus follows the Russian federal standard for specialty 31.05.01. A typical six-year plan looks like this; ask SPbSPMU for its own curriculum before you sign:

The first years cover the basic sciences, then clinical subjects follow, with hospital practice in the senior years. At a university with a pediatric profile, expect strong pediatric content. Clinical training means talking to Russian-speaking patients, so students who learn basic Russian in the first two years cope much better. The price list we read names General Medicine; ask whether other programmes are open to foreign students.

SPbSPMU compared with similar universities

Families shortlisting SPbSPMU usually compare it with other Saint Petersburg universities and with universities at a similar fee. The table uses first-year tuition and the combined FMGE pass rate for 2022–2025 from the NBEMS reports.

All three Saint Petersburg universities have had low Indian pass rates in the NBEMS reports, which suggests that Indian graduates of the city's medical schools have not done well in FMGE. At a similar fee, Bashkir has had a much higher pass rate and a far larger Indian cohort. See the full ranking by FMGE results.

After graduation: FMGE, internship and registration in Kerala

SPbSPMU awards the Russian specialist diploma in General Medicine after six years. To practise in India, a graduate then needs to:

1. Pass FMGE, held by NBEMS three times a year since 2026 (the NMC plans to replace it with NExT, with no date yet).
2. Complete a 12-month supervised internship in India, as the NMC requires for foreign graduates.
3. Register with the Travancore-Cochin Medical Council to practise in Kerala.

After registration, graduates can take NEET-PG for postgraduate seats in India like any other doctor. Practising in Russia is also possible but needs Russian accreditation and fluent Russian. With a pass rate of 6.9% in the last four years, FMGE should be a central part of your planning, not an afterthought: budget for coaching, for repeated attempts, and for more than a year between the diploma and the first salary in India.

Pros and cons for a student from Kerala

Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the MBBS fee at Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University for Indian students?

The university's 2025-26 price list gives 497,200 roubles for the first year of General Medicine for foreign citizens in the intermediary-language track, about ₹5.6 lakh at the Central Bank of Russia rate of 15 October 2026. Later years are listed at lower prices, but those are prices for students already in those courses, so ask for a contract that states each year. Hostel, food, insurance and flights are extra.

What are the hostel facilities and hostel fees at Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University?

We found no official hostel fee or room description for foreign students. Ask the international office in writing for the fee, room type, security and whether a place is kept for all six years. Without a hostel place, private rent in Saint Petersburg costs more than a hostel.

What NEET score is required for admission to Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University?

You need the NEET-UG qualifying score for your category: for the 2026 intake that is 213 out of 720 for general and EWS candidates and 177 for SC, ST and OBC (in 2025 it was 144 and 113; the marks rose in 2026 after the exam was re-held). We found no higher cut-off set by the university; ask whether it holds an entrance test or interview for foreign applicants.

Does MBBS at Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University meet NMC rules and is it taught in English?

The price list names the track "with an intermediary language", which in practice means English, but the page does not say so, and we do not know the share of Russian in later years. The NMC requires the whole course in English, at least 54 months of study and a 12-month internship at the same university. Ask for written confirmation of each point.

Are there students from Kerala at Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University, and is Indian food available in Saint Petersburg?

There is no official count of Indian students or of students from Kerala. Only 58 graduates sat FMGE in 2022–2025, so the Indian group is small. We have no verified information on Indian groceries or restaurants in the city, so ask the university for contacts of current students, and ask us for a Malayalam-speaking counsellor.

Sources: SPbSPMU price list for 2025/26 (scanned PDF on gpmu.org, table for foreign citizens, read through an archive in October 2026) and the university's website; Wikipedia for the founding year and coordinates; NBEMS FMGE reports 2021–2025; NMC FMGL Regulations 2021; Pulkovo Airport and Sapsan information from Wikipedia; Central Bank of Russia rate of 15 October 2026.