Ministry aims to double international student body by 2027

Korea wants to double its international student body in the next four years, the education minister said Wednesday...

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho announces a plan to double the international student body in Korea in the next four years in a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

Korea wants to double its international student body in the next four years, the education minister said Wednesday.

“The plan is to attract as many as 300,000 international students through 2027, and help Korea grow as a top-10 destination for studies,” said Lee Ju-ho, minister of education and deputy prime minister, in a press briefing in Seoul.

With around 160,000 international students currently studying in Korea, this would mean doubling the number of students within the next four years.

The plan is to attract as many as 220,000 students to enroll in an undergraduate or graduate program in Korea, and another 80,000 to come as exchange students.

Candidates studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, would be most sought after, said the ministry.

“We aim to strategically attract as many talents as possible in the fields of high-tech and new industries, and to especially expand the quota for state scholarships for international students majoring in masters and PhD studies on science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Lee said.

Subsequent government announcements will follow on the types of studies and programs to be offered to international students.

These programs will likely be based in the regions outside of Seoul and its immediate surrounding areas, as the ministry intends to boost regional economies with the plan.

Universities, local companies and local governments are to form a consultative group to strategically attract international students “according to the types of human resources needed in the region,” said Lee, adding that the international students will be attracted specifically based on local needs.

“For instance, in North Chungcheong, there are specific industry complexes such as for bioscience in Osong, and another for semiconductors in Ochang,” said a high-ranking official of the ministry in speaking with the press on Wednesday. “These companies will be consulted on the types of talents they need so that the government can plan with universities on the types of students needed to be trained in these fields.”

If everything goes as planned, said the official, the incoming international students would be encouraged to stay in and revitalize the local regions.

More than half of the country’s population lives in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi.

More than half of the current international student population is also studying in the greater Seoul area, according to the ministry.

International students line up at a booth at a job fair in Busan on July 20. [YONHAP]

Revitalization of regional economies has been a key policy objective for every incoming Korean administration in recent years, as the oversaturation of the greater Seoul area has led to unequal development throughout the nation.

Coupled with a rapidly aging society and one of the lowest birthrates in the world, the student bodies of universities located outside of the greater Seoul area have also been shrinking rapidly, with some universities faced with school closures.

A total of 19 universities closed down between 2000 and this year.

The fertility rate, or the average number of children born to a woman, hit 0.78 in Korea last year, marking the lowest among OECD countries. At the current rate, the country’s population of some 50 million is expected to be halved by 2011.

With a rapidly declining birthrate, there were reported to be some counties that haven’t seen a single birth all throughout last year, including Daegang-myeon, Yeongchun-myeon and Eosangcheon-myeon of Danyang County, North Chungcheong.

To attract more students from abroad, universities ought to offer more English-language classes, and this is something the ministry said it will be working on in the next few years.

Of the top 13 most international-student-friendly universities, ranked so by the ministry, only 13 percent of their courses were offered in English in 2022.

The ministry will also try to encourage more students to learn Korean, by expanding the number of Korean language teachers to foreign universities and by developing a platform for test takers for the Test of Proficiency in Korean, the state-run Korean language exam, to take the test online. As of now, the test can only be taken at designated test centers.

International students participate in the Sunkyun Hangeul Essay Contest at Sunkyunkwan University in Seoul on Aug. 9, wearing traditional Korean Confucian scholar attire. Winners of the annual Korean language essay competition are granted scholarships. [NEWS1]

The number of international students studying in Korea has been on a steady rise, from 91,332 in 2015 to 166,892 last year, according to the ministry.

The largest numbers came from China and Vietnam, as well as from countries including Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Japan and the United States.

Of the international students accounted for in Korea last year, 90.9 percent were paying for their tuition out of their pocket; 4.2 percent were on university scholarships and another 2.4 percent on Korean government scholarships.

The universities to host the largest number of international students last year were Hanyang, hosting 6,999; Kyung Hee, hosting 6,912; and Sungkyunkwan, hosting 6,676; followed by some 3,000 to 5,000 each at Yonsei, Korea, Chung-Ang and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, according to the ministry.

“We hope that we can host more young people interested in Korean culture to come and live and study and work here,” Lee said Wednesday. “We will do our best to provide institutional support so that great talents who can be assets to the society can study and settle down in Korea.”

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]