For sons & daughters of defence personnel
Defence Quota in Universities: Reservation & MOU Seats
Defence quota admission covers several separate, real pathways for wards of defence personnel into higher education — none of them replace qualifying the entrance exam, but each affects seat priority or fees afterward. Here's what actually exists: KSB's IIT and defence quota MBBS/BDS seats, CW quota and other named MOUs individual universities have signed with the Army and CAPF welfare bodies, AWES admission for its own 12 colleges, and exactly which public university each AWES college is affiliated to.
IIT pathway
Defence quota in IITs: stream-choice priority
Per Kendriya Sainik Board, children of Defence/Para Military Force personnel who were killed or permanently disabled in action get preferential allotment for choice of stream at six IITs — Mumbai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, and the BHU Institute of Technology, Roorkee. That's 2 earmarked seats at each of the six institutes (12 total). This isn't a bypass of the entrance exam — candidates must still qualify JEE; the benefit is priority in which stream/branch they're allotted within the institute.
Medical & dental pathway
Defence quota MBBS/BDS admission: Central Pool Quota (Government of India Nominee)
Every year, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare allots a batch of MBBS and BDS seats across government Medical/Dental colleges to the Ministry of Defence quota — coordinated end-to-end by Kendriya Sainik Board. Candidates must qualify NEET first; KSB then builds a merit list, priority-category by priority-category, and allots seats until they run out within each priority before moving to the next. The exact number of seats offered changes every year based on what the Ministry of Health allocates — treat any specific number you see quoted online as that year's figure, not a fixed annual guarantee.
| Priority | Category |
|---|---|
| I | Widows/wards of Defence personnel killed in action |
| II | Wards of personnel disabled in action, boarded out from service |
| III | Widows/wards of personnel who died in service, death attributable to military service |
| IV | Wards of personnel disabled in service, boarded out with disability attributable to military service |
| V | Wards of Ex-Servicemen/serving personnel who received Gallantry Awards (Param Vir Chakra down to Mention-in-Despatches) |
| VI | Wards of Ex-Servicemen |
| VII | Wives of disabled/gallantry-award categories above |
| VIII | Wards of Serving Personnel |
| IX | Wives of Serving Personnel |
A few rules that trip people up: this benefit is usable only once per family, in a lifetime; sons over 25 aren't eligible; married, non-dependent daughters aren't eligible; and wards of civilians working in AFHQ/MoD, DRDO, or Para Military/CAPF personnel are explicitly not eligible — this scheme covers Army, Navy and Air Force only. Applications go through ksb.gov.in, and your eligibility certificate needs to be signed by your RSB/ZSB and countersigned by OIC Records (or by your CO/OIC Records directly, for the serving-personnel priority categories).
Engineering pathway
Defence quota in engineering colleges: AICTE reservation for Ex-Servicemen dependents
Separately from AWES and KSB, many AICTE-approved engineering, polytechnic and ITI programmes carry an ex-servicemen quota category for dependents of Ex-Servicemen — commonly cited at around 3% of seats in engineering programmes, with roughly half of that sub-quota earmarked for girls. Polytechnic and ITI reservation for the same category is set "as per Government norms," which in practice means it varies state to state.
Defence quota, university by university
24 university MOUs for defence wards, seat by seat
This is the most granular data on this page, drawn from official MOU records maintained by the Directorate of Naval Education (updated 21 May 2026) — 24 universities, each with a formally negotiated seat count and fee-concession structure for defence families. Every one of these MOUs is structured around the same three-tier eligibility ladder used across the CAPF/state schemes above:
- Sahara — wards/spouses of personnel killed in action or died in harness, or with a qualifying disability. Highest concession, usually 100%.
- Serving — wards/spouses of currently serving personnel.
- Retired — wards/spouses of retired personnel, usually the lowest tier of the three.
| University | Location | Seats | Concession (Sahara / Serving / Retired) | MOU valid till |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence | Greater Noida, UP | 8 | 100% (2) / 75% (3) / 50% (3) | 2027 |
| SRM Institute of Science & Technology | Kattankulathur, Chennai | 3 | 100% waiver, tuition + registration (Sahara/Serving) | 2027 |
| Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) | Bhubaneshwar, Odisha | 2 MBBS · 5 BDS · 5 BSN · 4 BTech + unlimited other UG/PG/PhD | 10% (MBBS/BDS/BSN) · 50% (BTech & allied) — priority Sahara/Serving/Retired | 2028 |
| FLAME University | Pune, Maharashtra | 5 per course (BA/BBA/BSc) | 100% (5) / 75% (5) / 50% (5) | 2027 |
| RPS Group of Institutions | Mahendergarh, Haryana | 3 (girls only) | 100% tuition + hostel (Sahara/Serving) | 2027 |
| Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) | Gandhinagar, Gujarat | 2 per course (MPH/MHA/PGDPHM) | 100% tuition waiver (Sahara/Serving) | 2027 |
| Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) | Gandhinagar, Gujarat | As prescribed yearly | Scholarship for Sahara/Serving wards, set annually by the university | 2027 |
| Medhavi Skills University | Sikkim | 100 UG · 50 PG | 50% tuition + 10% hostel (Sahara/Serving/Retired) | 2028 |
| Karnavati University | Gandhinagar, Gujarat | 23 | 100% (3) / 75% (10) / 50% (10) | 2028 |
| Gandhi Institute of Technology & Mgmt (GITAM) | Vizag / Hyderabad / Bengaluru | 1 MBBS · 23 BTech | 15% (1 seat, medical) · 50% (3 wards, BTech) — Serving | 2026 |
| Guru Nanak Group of Institutions | Bidar, Karnataka | 8 | 100% (2) / 75% (3) / 50% (3) | 2028 |
| Mata Bhakti Devi Welfare Society (3 institutes) | Shimla, HP | B.Ed-5 · BSc(N)-3 · LLB-10 · BALLB-5 | Multiple tiers, 50–100% depending on course and category | 2028 |
| Saveetha Institute of Medical & Technical Sciences | Chennai | Unrestricted, subject to eligibility | 100% tuition + hostel + transport — Sahara only | 2028 |
| SASTRA | Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu | Unrestricted, subject to eligibility | 100% + free boarding (Sahara) · 50% incl. online degrees (Serving) | 2029 |
| Alliance University | Bengaluru | Unrestricted, subject to eligibility | 100% (2) / 75% (2) / 50% (2), plus 15% for all other Serving/Retired wards | 2030 |
| Chitkara University | Chandigarh | 1 (100%) + no cap (50%) + 5 (20%) | 100% (1, Sahara) / 50% (Sahara+Serving officers, no cap) / 20% (5, Serving/Retired) | 2030 |
| Hindustan Group of Institutions | Chennai | UG only | 100% (2) / 75% (3) / 50% (3) | 2030 |
| Lovely Professional University (LPU) | Punjab | Not capped | 12-tier scale, 20–100% by category (Sahara/disabled/serving officer/retired/gallantry/dependant) — full breakdown on LPU's MOU page | 2028 |
| Heritage Institute of Medical Sciences | Varanasi | Per course | Nil tuition concession generally; 100% hostel/misc fee (Sahara); 50% PG fee, select depts (Sahara); 20% tuition (Serving/Retired) | 2030 |
| University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES) | Dehradun | 2 UG (100%) + 25 (30%) + PhD (50%) | 100% (2, UG only, Sahara) / 30% (25 wards, Serving/Retired) / 20% online (Serving) / 50% PhD (Serving) | 2030 |
| RV University | Bengaluru | 17 | 100% (2) / 50% (10) / 25% (5) | 2030 |
| The Assam Royal Global University | Guwahati | 15 | 100% (2) / 50% (5) / 50% (5) | 2029 |
| Kalasalingam Academy of Research & Education | Tamil Nadu | 100 | 50–20% sliding scale by priority and Class XII % | 2030 (admissions not yet live) |
| Institute of Management Technology (IMT) | Ghaziabad, UP | 204 (PGDM) | 60% (4, Sahara) / 20% (100 incl. dependants, Serving) / 20% (100 incl. dependants, Retired) | 2029 (admissions not yet live) |
Eligibility criteria beyond the tier itself (minimum marks, entrance exam scores) are set independently by each university and are not repeated here — check the specific institute's admissions page. Two entries (Kalasalingam, IMT Ghaziabad) are signed MOUs where the university's admission process for this quota was still being finalised as of our last update. Several of these universities (including KIIT, Medhavi Skills University, Shiv Nadar and SRM) maintain parallel, separately signed MOUs with more than one Defence Force — the terms shown here are the ones on record with the Directorate of Naval Education; a different service's welfare cell may have negotiated its own seat count or concession for the same university, so always confirm which MOU applies to your own service before relying on these numbers.
Exam coaching
Coaching institute MOUs for defence wards
The same MOU network covers 7 coaching institutes — for JEE, NEET, UPSC/State PCS and SSC-CGL preparation — with fee concessions for defence families, again on the Sahara/Serving/Retired tier structure.
| Institute | Focus | Concession (Sahara / Serving / Retired) | MOU valid till |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drishti IAS | UPSC, Judiciary, State PCS, Teaching, CUET, SSC-CGL | 100% (10 wards) / 40% online / 25% online | 2028 |
| Resonance, Kota | JEE Main & Advanced, NEET | 100% (10 wards) / 60% (unlimited) / 40% (unlimited) | 2029 |
| Vajirao IAS Academy | UPSC, State PCS | 100% (10 wards) / 50% (unlimited) / 25% (unlimited) | 2029 |
| Physics Wallah, Noida | JEE, NEET, UPSC/State PCS, SSC-CGL, Class 8–10 foundation | 100% (10 wards) / 25% online (unlimited) / 35% offline (unlimited) | Admissions not yet live |
| IITians Pace Education, Mumbai | JEE, NEET | 100% (10 wards) / 50% (50 wards) / 45% (50 wards) | Admissions not yet live |
| IMS Learning, Mumbai | Management & other entrance coaching | 75% (serving sailors) / 50% (serving officers & retired) / 50% consulting programmes | 2026 |
| SKD Coaching Institute, Shimla | JEE, NEET | 100% (5 wards) / 50% (15 wards) / — | 2029 |
| Cavalier Coaching & Security Network, New Delhi | SSB interview & written coaching for NDA/CDS/OTA/AFCAT/TA/TGC/TES/CAPF entries | 25% concession on prevailing tuition fees for serving/retired Defence Force personnel and wards; also runs career-in-defence seminars and helps with entry application paperwork | Signed 27 Oct 2023 · 3-year term |
AWES's own network
AWES admission: 12 army quota colleges, and the universities they're affiliated to
This is the part most people don't know exists: the Army Welfare Education Society doesn't just run Army Public Schools — it runs 12 full professional colleges, each formally affiliated to a public university (or approved by the relevant statutory council) for degree-granting purposes. Almost every seat in most of these is reserved for defence personnel (Tri-Service) wards specifically — a handful carve out small civilian, state-domicile, or SC/ST sub-quotas. Entry still requires clearing the relevant national or state entrance exam (JEE, NEET, CAT, MAH-CET, or the university's own test). The last column shows the exact number of those seats specifically earmarked for Navy wards, per the Navy's own tracking of its allocation within each college.
| College | City | Affiliated university | Programmes & seat split | Entrance | Navy-ward seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army Institute of Technology (AIT) | Pune | Savitribai Phule Pune University | BE (IT/Comp/Mech/E&TC/Automation) — 100% Tri-Service; MTech (VLSI&ES) — Army-15/IAF-2/Navy-1 | JEE (Main) / GATE | 5 (BE) + 2 (ME) |
| Army Institute of Hotel Mgmt & Catering Tech (AIHM&CT) | Bengaluru | Bengaluru North University | BHM, 120 seats — 100% Tri-Service | Class X/XII marks (40:60) + interview | 2 |
| Army Institute of Management (AIM) | Kolkata | MAKAUT, West Bengal | MBA — Tri-Service-96, Civ-24; BBA — Tri-Service-30 | CAT (MBA) | 2 |
| Army Institute of Law (AIL) | Mohali, Punjab | Punjabi University, Patiala | BA/BCom LLB — Tri-Service ~75%, Punjab residents ~20%, All-India ~5%; LLM similarly split | LET (by AIL, per Punjabi University) | 1 (BA LLB) + 1 (LLM) |
| Army College of Dental Sciences (ACDS) | Secunderabad | KNR University of Health Sciences, Warangal | BDS, 50 seats — Army-43 (via NEET), Telangana-7 (via EAMCET); PG seats mostly Army-only | NEET (BDS) / NEET-PG | 1 (BDS) + 1 (MDS) |
| Army Institute of Education (AIE) | Greater Noida | GGSIPU, Delhi | B.Ed, B.Ed Spl. Edn, BA (Liberal Arts) — 100% Tri-Service | CET (by GGSIPU) | 2 (B.Ed) + 1 (B.Ed Spl) |
| Army Institute of Mgmt & Technology (AIMT) | Greater Noida | GGSIPU, Delhi | MBA, BBA — 100% Tri-Service | CAT/CMAT/CET | 2 (MBA) + 1 (BBA) |
| Army Institute of Fashion & Design (AIFD) | Bengaluru | Bengaluru North University | B.Sc (FAD), 60 seats — Tri-Service-90%, Civilian-10% | Class X/XII marks + interview | 1 (FAD) + 1 (IDD) |
| Army College of Nursing (ACN) | Jalandhar Cantt | Baba Farid University of Health Sciences | B.Sc Nursing (girls only), 100 seats — 100% Tri-Service | OTA (by AWES) | 1 (BSc) + 0 (MSc) |
| Army Institute of Nursing (AIN) | Guwahati | Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences | B.Sc/M.Sc Nursing (girls only) — Tri-Service-90%, NE Civilian-10% | OTA / written test (by AWES) | 1 (BSc) + 1 (MSc) |
| Army College of Medical Sciences (ACMS) | Delhi Cantt | GGSIPU, Delhi | MBBS, 100 seats — Army-79, SC/ST-18, PH/PWD-3 | NEET | Not separately tracked |
| Army Law College (ALC) | Pune (Kanhe) | Savitribai Phule Pune University | BBA LLB, BA LLB — 100% Tri-Service | MAH-CET LLB | 1 (BBA LLB) |
Army Law College, Pune has not run admissions for the last two intake cycles pending a Supreme Court review petition — check current status directly before applying. Seat numbers and splits are as published by AWES and the Navy's own seat-tracking records, and can change year to year; confirm the current year's intake and eligibility directly with the college before applying.
Other individual university MOUs
Army/CAPF-specific arrangements outside the Navy's MOU network
A few more universities have standing reservation policies or signed MOUs specifically with the Army or CAPF welfare bodies — separate from the Navy network above. Shiv Nadar University, for example, has two distinct MOUs — one with the Navy (in the table above) and a separate one with the Army (below) — so check which service's welfare body governs your own eligibility.
| University | Scheme / MOU | What it offers | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Delhi | CW (Children/Widows of Armed Forces) quota | 5% of seats reserved, programme-wise, across all colleges — Defence Priority I–IX, Para-Military Priority I–V. Requires CUET (UG) plus an Educational Concession Certificate. | Standing policy |
| Chandigarh University | AFEWS (Armed Forces Educational Welfare Scheme) | 5% of seats in all courses for wards/spouses of Defence martyrs; fee concessions 15% (war widows/casualties/disabled) or 10% (serving/retired). Separate Vikram Batra Scholarship: 20 seats over 3 years, 10–15% fee waiver. | Active, AY 2025–26 |
| Shiv Nadar University | MOU with Indian Army | 50–100% tuition-fee concession on 25 UG seats annually, priority to Veer Naris and their children, extending to serving/retired Army families. | Signed 27 Jan 2025 · 5-year term |
| JIIT (Jaypee Institute), Noida | MOU with Indian Army | 100% tuition-fee concession for families of Army personnel killed in service (subject to seat limits); 25% concession for serving/retired Army personnel's families. | AY 2026–27 to 2028–29 |
| JIIT (Jaypee Institute), Noida | MOU with CWA CRPF | 25% tuition-fee concession on Online BBA and Online MBA programmes for CRPF personnel and their families. | Recently signed |
| Parul University, Vadodara | Defence Scholarship Scheme | Fee scholarship for serving Defence personnel (on study leave), retired Defence personnel, and dependants of Defence and Central Armed Police Force personnel. Introduced 2020–21; extended for AY 2025–26 but capped at 50 seats (reduced from earlier intakes). Available at the Vadodara campus only — not offered at the newer Goa campus. | Active, AY 2025–26 · 50-seat cap |
| Galgotias University, Greater Noida | MOU with a Defence Force | Facilitates admission across Galgotias programmes for serving/retired personnel and their wards, including personnel deceased in service. Specific fee concession percentage is not stated in the publicly available MOU document — confirm directly with the university. | Signed 15 Jul 2025 · 3-year term |
| Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education (NICHE), Kanyakumari | MOU with a Defence Force | Minimum 30% concession on tuition fees across all NICHE courses for eligible wards/dependants of serving and retired personnel, subject to entrance/eligibility criteria and seat availability. Also extends free access to the NICHE Defence Training Academy. | Signed 12 Dec 2024 |
| Lovely Professional University (LPU) | MOU with a Defence Force (separate from the Navy MOU above) | Six-tier fee-waiver scale for regular on-campus programmes: 100% + hostel (5 seats/yr, dependants of personnel died in harness); 100% (5 seats/yr, dependants with ≥50% service disability); 50% (serving personnel on study leave with a gallantry award); 30% (serving officers on study leave without gallantry, or retired personnel/dependants with gallantry); 20% (retired personnel/dependants without gallantry); plus an additional 20% fee aid stackable on top of any other scholarship. Unfilled seats in a category don't carry over to the next year. | Signed 15 May 2025 |
| Rajkumar Goel Institute of Technology (RKGIT) | MOU with a Defence Force | Admission-facilitation MOU for serving/retired personnel and their wards. Specific fee concession is not stated in the publicly available MOU document — confirm directly with the institute. | Signed 12 Apr 2023 |
This is a sample, not an exhaustive list — more universities likely have similar individual schemes we haven't surveyed yet. If your target university isn't listed here, ask its admissions or scholarships office directly whether a defence-family concession or reserved-seat scheme exists; don't assume one doesn't just because it isn't widely publicised.
Frequently asked
Quick answers
Are AWES colleges open to all Ex-Servicemen's children?
Mostly no. Most AWES institutions reserve seats specifically for wards of Army, Air Force and Navy personnel — several, like AIT Pune and ACMS Delhi, are effectively Army-ward institutions with only small civilian or state sub-quotas. Check the exact split for your target college.
How is the KSB MBBS/BDS quota different from AWES colleges?
They're separate schemes. KSB's Central Pool Quota nominates eligible wards into reserved seats inside regular government Medical/Dental colleges nationwide. AWES colleges (like Army College of Medical Sciences or Army College of Dental Sciences) are entirely separate institutions AWES itself built and runs, with their own dedicated intake.
Do I need to qualify JEE or NEET to use these quotas?
Yes, in every case here. None of these schemes bypass the entrance exam — they only affect seat or counselling priority once you've qualified.
Is the AICTE 3% engineering reservation guaranteed at every college?
Not necessarily. It's commonly cited around 3%, but actual implementation varies by state and college — confirm the exact figure with your target state's technical education directorate.
What are the university MOUs with the Army or CAPF welfare bodies?
A growing number of universities have signed standalone agreements offering reserved seats or fee concessions — e.g. Shiv Nadar University's MOU with the Indian Army (50–100% tuition concession on 25 UG seats/year, signed 27 Jan 2025) and JIIT Noida's separate MOUs with the Indian Army and CWA CRPF. These are university-specific, not centrally coordinated.
What are the 24 university MOUs for defence quota seats?
A set of MOUs between the Navy's welfare bodies (via the Directorate of Naval Education) and 24 universities plus 7 coaching institutes, each with negotiated seats and fee concessions on a Sahara/Serving/Retired tier structure. This network is Navy-administered, but AWES seat-tracking confirms these run tri-service in practice.
What is CW quota in university admission?
CW stands for Children/Widows of Armed Forces personnel — a reservation category used by universities like Delhi University, which sets aside 5% of seats programme-wise for this category, ranked by the same Priority I-IX (Defence) and Priority I-V (Para-Military) structure used across most defence quota schemes. It requires a CUET or other entrance score plus an Educational Concession Certificate, not a bypass of admission requirements.
How do I get admission to an AWES college?
Each of the 12 AWES colleges runs its own entrance process — usually the relevant national exam (JEE, NEET, CAT) or an AWES-conducted test (OAT/WAT), followed by counselling. Most seats are reserved for wards of Army, Navy and Air Force personnel specifically, not a general Ex-Servicemen quota, so check the exact eligibility and seat split for your target college before applying.
Is there a separate army quota for engineering and medical college admission?
Yes, but it's split across several tracks: AICTE reservation (~3%) for dependents of Ex-Servicemen in general engineering colleges, AWES's own engineering/medical colleges reserved mostly for Army/Navy/Air Force wards, and the KSB MBBS/BDS Central Pool Quota inside regular government medical colleges. There's no single unified "army quota" — eligibility depends on which specific track you're applying under.
Source & accuracy
IIT stream-choice priority and the MBBS/BDS Central Pool Quota structure (Priority I–IX, eligibility rules, application process) are drawn directly from official Kendriya Sainik Board pages and instruction documents (ksb.gov.in). The 24-university and 7-coaching-institute MOU tables, and the Navy-ward seat counts added to the AWES table, are drawn directly from official MOU and seat-allocation records published via the Directorate of Naval Education, Naval Headquarters — updated 21 May 2026. That source labels its concession tiers "naval personnel"; we've generalised this to "defence personnel (Tri-Service)" throughout this page since the AWES seat data confirms tri-service allocation in practice, but this network is Navy-administered — confirm your specific eligibility route through your service's welfare cell. The 12-college AWES table — affiliated universities, programmes, seat splits, entrance exams — is drawn directly from the official AWES college directory (awesindia.com); seat numbers can change year to year, so treat them as indicative of the current published split, not a permanent guarantee. The University of Delhi's CW quota (5%) is drawn from official DU admission-bulletin documents. Chandigarh University's AFEWS scheme, and the Shiv Nadar–Army and JIIT–Army/CWA CRPF MOUs, are drawn from the universities' own press releases and syndicated news coverage (PIB-style wire releases, not government notifications) — we treat these as reliable but recommend confirming current terms directly with each university's admissions office, since MOU terms, seat counts and fee percentages can be renegotiated. The AICTE 3% engineering reservation figure is drawn from consistently corroborated public admissions guidance, not a primary AICTE circular we could independently verify — confirm current figures with your state's technical education directorate. Always confirm your specific eligibility and current-year seat numbers with KSB, AWES, your service's welfare cell, or the individual institution before applying.
Last verified: 9 Aug 2026 Our sources Report an error
More resources