Samara State Medical University: MBBS Fees, Hostel, NEET Cut-Off and Admission for Indian Students
Samara State Medical University (SamSMU) is a state medical university on the Volga, with roots going back to 1930. Agents quote 450,000 roubles (about ₹5.1 lakh) a year, but we found no official fee, and NBEMS shows very few SamSMU graduates sitting FMGE, with 1 of 28 passing in 2022–2025. Read this page before you shortlist it.
In short: SamSMU is a state medical university in Samara, on the Volga, with a history that goes back to 1930. We found no official fee for the English track: an agent table gives 450,000 roubles a year (about ₹5.1 lakh) and other agents give different figures, so get the official list. Its graduates passed FMGE at 1 of 28 candidates in 2022–2025, against a Russian average of about 25%, a very small number of candidates and a very low result. No source we found confirms English for all six years.
Samara State Medical University at a glance
| Founded | 1930 |
|---|---|
| City | Samara |
| Language of the programme | English groups exist; ask whether all six years are in English |
| Duration | 6 years |
| Tuition, first year | 450,000 ₽ per year ≈ ₹5.1 lakh (agent figure, confirm with the university) |
| Hostel | 32,000 ₽ per year |
| Official website | samsmu.ru |
Samara State Medical University is a federal state budgetary institution of higher education under the Ministry of Health of Russia, so it is a public university, not a private college. The address is Chapaevskaya Street 89, Samara, 443099, and the official website is samsmu.ru. The university has changed its name several times: Middle Volga Regional Medical Institute (1930–1934), Samara Medical Institute, Kuibyshev Medical Institute (1935–1939), the 2nd Kuibyshev Military Medical Academy (1939–1942), Kuibyshev Medical Institute named after D.I. Ulyanov (1942–1990) and Samara Medical Institute again until 1992. We use 1930 as the year when it was established, as in English and Russian Wikipedia; some agent pages say 1919, which we did not use.
We found no official count of Indian students. Official figures for all foreign students together are about 350 (the Wikipedia infobox) and 453 (a 2019 university presentation). An agent site claims 700 to 1,000 Indian students without a source, which is more than those totals, so we do not rely on it. Ask the international office how many Indian students and how many from Kerala study there now. The FMGE table below gives a separate reason to ask.
Get the Samara State Medical University fee structure
We send the current fee list, hostel details and the admission timeline for your intake.
Samara State Medical University fees for Indian students
Here we have to be careful. We could not read an official price list for the English-language General Medicine programme. The university publishes price orders (an order No. 360-u dated 21 May 2025 exists on samsmu.ru) but we could not open it and cannot tell which programme, language and period its figures cover. What we have are agent figures, and they disagree. The rmcedu fee table for 2026 gives 450,000 roubles a year for years 1 to 6. An admissions listing for the English track at the International Institute of SamSMU shows the same 450,000 roubles, but it is a beta listing that itself tells users to check the university's lists. Careers360 gave 400,000 roubles in 2025, a consultancy blog gives 355,000 roubles, and selectyouruniversity gives USD 4,000 to 6,000 a year. Agents quote different figures, so the student must get the official current fee list from the university.
SamSMU fee structure 2026-27
| Six years at today's fee (fees usually rise each year) | INR |
|---|---|
| Tuition, 6 years (agent figure) | ₹30.6 lakh |
For planning only: 450,000 roubles a year is roughly ₹5.1 lakh at today's exchange rate, or about ₹31 lakh over six years if the fee never rose. The hostel row in the table above uses an agent's 32,000 roubles, which that table shows for the first year only, so treat the hostel total as a rough guess. Russian universities usually raise fees from time to time, so keep a reserve of 10–20% for increases and for the rouble-rupee rate, and ask whether tuition is paid per year or per semester.
| Cost item | What we know for SamSMU |
|---|---|
| Tuition | Agents quote about 450,000 RUB a year; other agents quote less; no official price read |
| Hostel | One agent table shows 32,000 RUB for year 1; confirm with the university |
| Medical insurance | Compulsory for foreign students; ask whether it is in the contract |
| Food | Most students cook in hostel kitchens; ask senior students for their real spend |
| Flights | Kerala to Moscow via a Gulf hub or Delhi, then on to Samara |
Compare SamSMU with other universities on the MBBS in Russia fees page. The agent fee is in the same range as Smolensk, Privolzhsky and Kazan State Medical University, which means the question for a family is what the fee buys. Families from Kerala also compare Russian fees with what a Kerala college would cost on their NEET rank; ask us for both numbers side by side.
Living cost in Samara
Beyond tuition and hostel, a student's monthly budget in Samara is made of food (mostly cooked in the hostel kitchen), a mobile plan and internet, local transport, study material and winter clothing in the first year. We have no verified monthly figure for Samara and will not invent one. Ask senior Indian students at SamSMU for their real monthly spend before you fix the family budget.
Hostel and hostel fees
We found no official information on the SamSMU hostel. The only figure is the 32,000 roubles shown for the first year in an agent table, and it does not say whether this is the annual fee. At Russian state universities foreign students usually live in student residences in shared rooms with common kitchens, but do not assume it, and ask the international office in writing for:
- the hostel fee per year and how it is paid;
- whether a first-year foreign student is sure to get a place in a residence or must find a flat;
- how far the residence is from the teaching buildings;
- how rooms are allocated for girls (the girls hostel question is the one parents ask most), what security there is at the entrance, and how well the rooms are heated in winter.
NEET cut-off and eligibility
SamSMU does not publish a NEET cut-off of its own that we could find. What you need is the NEET-UG qualifying score for your category, because without it an Indian graduate cannot practise in India:
- 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.
We found no published entrance exam or acceptance rate for foreign applicants. Ask whether there is an entrance test or interview and what it covers. Students who meet the eligibility criteria and apply on time are usually admitted at Russian state universities, but the real filter is FMGE six years later, so a student with a weak NEET score should think hard about the exam ahead. See the full eligibility and documents list.
Check your eligibility for SamSMU
Send your NEET score and Class 12 marks; we tell you if you can apply this year.
Admission process at Samara State Medical University
Apply online
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.
Admission letter and contract
The university checks the documents and issues an admission letter. Read the contract for the fee, its period and currency, the language of instruction and the internship, and check that it names the English-language programme.
Invitation and visa
The university arranges your study invitation. With it you apply for the student visa; the nearest Russian consulate to Kerala is in Chennai.
Travel to Samara
Fly to Moscow through a Gulf hub or Delhi, then travel on to Samara. Ask the international office how it meets new students and who completes the migration registration.
We do not have the intake date for SamSMU, so ask for it in writing. Apply soon after NEET results, 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
Families often search for the Samara State Medical University ranking and its world ranking. We found no ranking for SamSMU that we can verify from a primary source, and Russian national ratings change their methods often. Rankings also say little about what matters for 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 SamSMU for written confirmation of each point. See NMC rules.
- World Directory of Medical Schools. We could not confirm the listing of the university in WDOMS. Check it yourself; an Indian graduate needs a degree from a recognised medical school.
- FMGE results, below, which show how its Indian graduates actually do.
The English language question deserves its own line. Sources disagree: an admissions listing names the language of General Medicine as English, a university-linked page says training is in Russian and English, rmcedu says the course is entirely in English, and selectyouruniversity says English and Russian. The university has an English-language programme document on its website (samsmu.ru/files/news/2021/0110/ephe.pdf) that we could not open. Ask for it, and ask in writing whether clinical training in years 4 to 6 is taught in English.
FMGE passing percentage of Samara State Medical University
NBEMS publishes FMGE results for every foreign university. The SamSMU numbers are very small. In 2022, 1 of 12 candidates passed (8.3%) against a Russian average of 26.0%. In 2023, none of 7 passed (average 19.4%); in 2024, none of 5 (average 29.5%); in June 2025, none of 2 (18.1%); and in December 2025, none of 2 (30.9%). Over 2022–2025 that is 1 pass among 28 candidates. The earlier reports show 1 of 15 in 2020 (6.7%) and 0 of 12 in 2021, again below the Russian averages of 16.0% and 24.8%.
| Session | Appeared | Passed | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 2025 | 2 | 0 | 0.0% |
| June 2025 | 2 | 0 | 0.0% |
| 2024 | 5 | 0 | 0.0% |
| 2023 | 7 | 0 | 0.0% |
| 2022 | 12 | 1 | 8.3% |
| 2021 | 12 | 0 | 0.0% |
| 2020 | 15 | 1 | 6.7% |
With fewer than 300 candidates in 2022–2025, SamSMU is not ranked in our ranking, and with 2 to 12 candidates a year one cannot say what a future batch will do. But the numbers show no year in which SamSMU graduates reached the Russian average, and the very low number of candidates is itself a question. If hundreds of Indian students were studying here, many more graduates would be expected to appear for FMGE. The reports do not explain it: it may mean few Indian graduates, or graduates who did not take FMGE, or other reasons we cannot see. Ask the university directly how many of its Indian graduates took FMGE in the last three years and how many passed. The older "MCI passing ratio" is the same thing: FMGE was run for the Medical Council of India before the NMC replaced it. Compare SamSMU with every other university on the FMGE pass rate page.
Safety in Samara for Indian students
Samara, 850 km from Moscow in the middle Volga, is not one of the border regions and not in the North Caucasus. We know of no published incident involving Indian students at SamSMU. Practical safety is about the usual care of a student living abroad, and a few points are worth asking about:
- Ask what security the residence has: guards, entry control, cameras.
- Keep the Indian Embassy in Moscow in your phone and register with it after arrival.
- Check the current advisory at mea.gov.in before travel; Russia-related advisories change.
- Never accept a job or "contract" offer that involves the Russian military.
Get the Samara State Medical University fee structure
We send the current fee list, hostel details and the admission timeline for your intake.
Life in Samara for Kerala students
Samara is a city on the Volga in the middle Volga region. We have no city-specific climate note, and no verified information on Indian food, Indian shops or the number of Kerala students there. The Volga region has cold winters, so plan for proper winter clothing in the first year and ask senior students where and when to buy it.
Ask the international office to connect you with current Indian students, and ask them: is there a Malayali group, do students cook in the hostel kitchen, where do they buy rice and spices, what do the first months cost. Our counsellors speak Malayalam and can arrange this call from the Kakkanad office. Do this before you pay any fee: with only about 350 to 450 foreign students in total according to the official figures, the community here may be small.
Where Samara State Medical University is: distance to Moscow and how to get there from Kerala
Samara State Medical University is in Samara, on the Volga. The distance from Samara to Moscow is about 850 km in a straight line. The city is in the MSK+1 time zone, one hour ahead of Moscow, and one and a half hours behind India. We do not have a verified name of the nearest airport or a transfer plan from the university, so ask the international office how students usually arrive and where it meets them.
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 a train to the city. Aeroflot flies Delhi–Moscow nonstop about daily. Read more on the universities page and the map of all cities.
Scholarships, syllabus and courses
We found no SamSMU scholarship that cuts tuition for Indian students as a rule. The Russian government offers a limited number of state-funded places to foreign citizens each year through its quota programme, applied for on the official education-in-russia.com portal; 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 SamSMU for its own curriculum before you sign:
| Years | Main subjects |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Anatomy, histology, physiology, biochemistry, biology, Latin, Russian language |
| 3 | Pathology, pharmacology, microbiology, propaedeutics of internal diseases, general surgery |
| 4–5 | Internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, pediatrics, neurology, infectious diseases, psychiatry |
| 6 | Clinical rotations in hospitals and the state final examinations |
The first years cover the basic sciences, then clinical subjects follow, with hospital practice in the senior years. Clinical training means talking to Russian-speaking patients, so students who learn basic Russian in the first two years cope much better. The course we describe here is General Medicine; we have not verified other programmes for foreigners.
SamSMU compared with similar universities
Families shortlisting SamSMU usually compare it with universities at a similar fee. The table uses the yearly tuition in rupees and the combined FMGE pass rate for 2022–2025 from the NBEMS reports.
| University | City | Tuition per year | FMGE 2022–2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samara State Medical University | Samara | ₹5.1 lakh (agent figure) | 3.6% (1 of 28) |
| Smolensk State Medical University | Smolensk | ₹5.2 lakh (agent figure) | 35.4% |
| Privolzhsky Research Medical University | Nizhny Novgorod | ₹5.3 lakh | 36.9% |
| Kazan State Medical University | Kazan | ₹5.4 lakh | 30.5% |
At a similar fee, the three other universities have had FMGE pass rates of 30% or more over the last four years, while SamSMU had one pass among 28 candidates, and SamSMU is not ranked because of its small numbers. That does not prove that SamSMU teaches badly, but it gives a family no evidence in its favour; ask the university for its own figures. See the full ranking by FMGE results.
After graduation: FMGE, internship and registration in Kerala
SamSMU awards the Russian specialist diploma in General Medicine after six years. To practise in India, a graduate then needs to:
- Pass FMGE, held by NBEMS three times a year since 2026 (the NMC plans to replace it with NExT, with no date yet).
- Complete a 12-month supervised internship in India, as the NMC requires for foreign graduates.
- 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. Plan for a year or more between the diploma and the first salary in India.
Pros and cons for a student from Kerala
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| State medical university under the Ministry of Health, with a history from 1930 | FMGE: 1 pass among 28 candidates in 2022–2025, below the Russian average in every session |
| Agent fee of about ₹5.1 lakh a year, similar to Smolensk, Privolzhsky and Kazan | No official fee for the English track read; agents quote different figures |
| Samara is a Volga city, 850 km from Moscow and not in a border region | English for all six years not confirmed; sources say English, or Russian and English |
| An English-language programme exists at the International Institute, per an admissions listing | Small foreign community by official figures; hostel details unknown |
Talk to us about SamSMU
We tell you honestly whether SamSMU fits your NEET score, budget and expectations.
Samara State Medical University: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the MBBS fee at Samara State Medical University for Indian students?
We found no official fee for the English track. An agent table gives 450,000 roubles a year, about ₹5.1 lakh at the Central Bank of Russia rate of 15 October 2026, and other agents give lower or different figures. Agents quote different figures, so get the official current fee list from the university before you pay anything. Hostel, food, insurance and flights are extra.
What are the hostel facilities and hostel fees at Samara State Medical University?
We have no official information on the SamSMU hostel. One agent table shows 32,000 roubles for the first year. Ask the international office in writing for the fee, how rooms are allocated for girls and what security the residence has.
What NEET score is required for admission to Samara State 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.
Does MBBS at Samara State Medical University meet NMC rules and is it taught in English?
Sources disagree: some say the course is entirely in English, others say English and Russian. The NMC requires the whole course in English, at least 54 months of study and a 12-month internship at the same university. Ask SamSMU for written confirmation of each condition, and ask for its English-language programme document.
Are there students from Kerala at Samara State Medical University, and is Indian food available in Samara?
We have no verified count of Indian students or of students from Kerala, and no verified information on Indian food in Samara. Official totals for all foreign students are about 350 to 450. Ask the international office to put you in touch with current Indian students; we can also arrange a Malayalam-language call.
Sources: rmcedu fee table for 2026 and an admissions listing for the English track (agent and aggregator figures; no official price list read); Careers360 and selectyouruniversity for other agent figures; Wikipedia and a 2019 SamSMU presentation for foreign student numbers; NBEMS FMGE reports 2020–2025; NMC FMGL Regulations 2021; Central Bank of Russia rate of 15 October 2026.