Chennai: Student visa restrictions by US and European countries, conflict in West Asia and low fees have resulted in more admissions under Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Children of Indian Workers in Gulf Countries (CWGIC) quotas at Anna University this year. As many as 160 students were enrolled in these two categories for the 2026-27 academic year against 136 students last year.These students are from countries such as Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, UK, Korea, Japan, Canada, Angola, Azerbaijan, Australia and Germany. “The cost of education is affordable at Anna University,” said V Kumaresan, registrar (in charge) of Anna University. “The campuses also provide high-quality engineering education.”The university charges USD 7,500 from those joining courses such as computer science engineering, IT and electronics and communication engineering. For other courses, the fee is USD 3,750.“Visa restrictions by European countries and US are also another reason. The impact of the US-Iran war did not have much impact on the NRI admissions,” he said.This year, students have joined a diverse range of courses besides computer science engineering and ECE.NRI students have joined UG courses such as biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, industrial engineering, electronics engineering (VLSI), mining, robotics, production engineering and geoinformatics. “Due to the impact of AI, students are expecting a demand for domain experts and interdisciplinary courses in future. Our twinning programmes with foreign universities are another attraction for NRIs,” said R Baskaran, director of centre for international relations, Anna University.The university enrols about 10% of students under NRI, CWGIC and foreign nationals quota every year. Last year, about 202 students were enrolled in different programmes. “The foreign national admissions are still going on and we will enrol about the same as last year,” he said.The university has received more applications through Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) for the 2026-27 academic year. The four campuses of Anna University currently host 600 NRIs and foreign nationals from around 50 countries.
