Everything You Need To Know About NRI Admissions

The most common question asked by parents at a recently held education-cum-counselling fair was “What is the eligibility for an NRI seat?” Payal Sharma (name changed), whose daughter is a domicile of Haryana and has scored low marks in NEET UG 2019, was attending the fair to find out if her brother who was in the US could be the sponsor for a seat in the NRI quota.

- Prabha Dhavala

Take the instance of Mr. Abdul Sheik who lives in Dubai and whose family resides in India. He wished to apply for his son using his NRI status and wished to know which documents he had to keep ready for the same.

Since many years, one of the most misused quotas in medical and dental admissions has been the NRI quota. With many states offering as many as 15% of the seats in private colleges to NRIs at a fee almost five times the regular ones, this category is a gateway for students who can afford the fee to fulfil their dream of being a doctor even if they have not scored well in the entrance test. Not just the medical admissions, NRI quota has been the gateway to admissions in engineering, management etc. for students who have not performed that well in the entrance exams and can afford the higher range of fees.

Who is an NRI?

A Non-Resident Indian would be the obvious answer. For admission purposes, a Supreme Court ruling on the Consortium of Deemed Universities in Karnataka (CODEUNIK) & ANR Vs Union of India & Ors dated August 22, 2017 is now used to define an NRI. The judgment first specifies a limited reservation of such seats, not exceeding 15% for NRI students before detailing who could fall under the NRI category. It also mentions that Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) students also come under the NRI quota.

Who can sponsor a student under NRI category?

The sponsoring NRI can be any one of the following: