Government, universities look to international students

Both universities and the government are turning to countries abroad to recruit new students, with Vietnam being a big focus.

International students attend Korea University's freshman orientation in February. [NEWS1]

Both universities and the government are turning to countries abroad to recruit new students, with Vietnam being a big focus.

The Ministry of Education announced Monday it created the International Student Support Division to create new policies to attract international students.

The division was created under the education ministry's Global Education Planning Bureau, headed by Min Mi-hong, former head of the ministry's Lifelong Education for Students with Disabilities team. Seven people work for the new division.

"The new division will cater to international students, partner with universities to create new programs and ease visa restrictions for international students," a spokesperson for the education ministry said.

The number of international students, which briefly fell during the pandemic, is rising again. According to the Korean Educational Development Institute, there were 166,892 international students in Korea as of April 2022. That's up 9.6 percent on year and a record high.

Among the 166,892 students, 67,439 were Chinese students, making up for 40.4 percent. Vietnamese students accounted for 22.7 percent.

Despite Chinese students making up for a big portion, growth is slowing down. Chinese students as of April 2022 edged up 0.16 percent on year, while Vietnamese students rose 5.9 percent on year.

"Vietnam is a country where a lot of Korean conglomerates operate overseas businesses, with cultural factors such as the popularity of K-pop and former Vietnam's men's national football head coach Park Hang-seo leading to a continuous increase in international students from Vietnam," an official from a Korean university said.

Uzbekistan accounted for 5.16 percent of Korea's international student population as of April 2022. Mongolia accounted for 4.4 percent, Japan 3.4 percent, United States 2.02 percent and France 1.53 percent.

With students from Vietnam rapidly increasing, universities are going abroad to promote themselves to the students.

Jeon Min-hyon, Inje University's president, visited Hanoi Polytechnic College on April 25, signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to welcome more students from the Vietnamese university.

Officials from Inje University and Hanoi Polytechnic College pose for a photo after signing a memorandum of understanding on April 25. [INJE UNIVERSITY]

Hanoi Polytechnic College will select outstanding students interested in studying in Korea to transfer to Inje University. Inje University professors will participate in Hanoi Polytechnic College's transfer fairs in the future, meeting Vietnamese students who want to transfer to their university.

In exchange, the Korean university will provide help for Hanoi Polytechnic College to establish new majors in medical fields.

Dongnam Health University also signed an MoU with two Vietnamese universities — Dong Do University and Nghe An University of Economics — to create exchange programs for students from each university.

"Non-Seoul universities that are less popular than universities in Seoul have been turning to countries in Central Asia and Southeast Asia to recruit international students," said another official from a Korean university.

The university with the most international students as of April 2022 was Hanyang University, with 6,999 international students. Kyung Hee University followed with 6,912, Sungkyunkwan with 6,676, Yonsei University with 5,926 and Korea University with 4,739.

Although Korean universities are seeing more international students, one problem is students preferring universities in Seoul.

The only non-Seoul university to make it to the top 10 list was Gacheon University, with 3,057 international students.

Out of the total 166,892 international students, 46.2 percent studied at Seoul-based universities.

"Students consider factors like the status of the university and quality of education when choosing which university to study abroad at, and this naturally leads to students preferring certain universities," said Rep. Song Kyung-won of the Justice Party.

Learn more about Korean university life on K-campus.

BY LEE TAE-HEE, CHOI MIN-JI [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]