Korean universities creating more international student-exclusive majors

More universities are creating majors that are open exclusively to international students amid lifted regulations and the need to attract a bigger international student body.

Students participate in Korea University's International Student Fair in November last year. [YONHAP]

More universities are creating majors that are open exclusively to international students amid lifted regulations and the need to attract a bigger international student body.

Korea University is currently in discussions around creating a Global Entertainment Department, a tentative name, that will only accept international students.

Teaching students about the Korean entertainment industry, film, music, webtoons and games, the university hopes to target the high demand of international students who want to learn about those fields.

The Global Entertainment Department isn't the only program being created to host only international students.

Korea University's Global Open Major Division is a new program open only for international students, which will be admitting its first cohort of students in the spring 2024 semester.

The division works as an undecided major program, allowing students to take courses from different majors during their first year and choose a major in their sophomore year.

Being an international student-exclusive program, it focuses on teaching Korean to students and helping them adapt. Korean courses — divided into various levels for students with different proficiency — and Korean writing and reading courses are offered as electives for students.

The program is similar to the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, which also allows students to choose their major in their sophomore year. Both Korean and international students can apply for the program.

Apart from the additional Korean support, another difference between the two programs is that students are given different options to choose from when they are deciding their major.

Students at the Global Open Major Division get split into the Korean track and English track in their sophomore year depending on their Korean proficiency. English track students will be able to choose from five majors such as business, international studies and mechanical engineering. Korean track students, or those with Topik level 5 or above, will be allowed to choose from 43 majors. The available majors are essentially all majors offered at Korea University except those for English track students, school of medicine, school of nursing and school of education.

Undecided students at the School of Interdisciplinary Studies can choose from 32 majors, with the options similar to offerings for Korean track students, but excluding those in arts and sports.

Kyung Hee University's Global Korea Studies major used to be open for all students, but is moving to become a major only offered to international students.

Starting in the spring 2024 semester, the major only accepts one Korean national, with the rest being international students.

Many universities have been creating majors that only admit international students after the government lifted regulations that prohibit them from doing so.

The Higher Education Act was amended in May 2022, allowing universities to create a major that exclusively admits students who are outside the regular admissions quota.

Foreigners are a group of students admitted outside the admissions quota. Adult learners, referring to those ages 25 and above, are another group of people that falls under the category. They aren't evaluated based on their College Scholastic Ability Test scores, but mostly on their experience. Programs that exclusively select them tend to be held on weekends or late at night.

Seoul National University of Science and Technology's International College is also a new college created this year, admitting only international students.

Sogang University's Loyola International College opened this spring semester, with its Division of Global Interdisciplinary Studies also a program only for international students. Two other divisions under the college — Division of Global Korean Studies and Geppert School of International Studies — are open to all students.

Soongsil University also has a major for foreigners, but in its graduate school.

Its Global Business Major, under the Graduate School of Small and Medium Businesses, only admits international students and is similar to the business school program.

Being exclusive to international students, it offers scholarships based on their Korean proficiency level. Having a large Chinese student population, some courses are also taught in Chinese and some Korean classes offer real-time translation to Chinese.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]