Changes to IEQAS metrics under discussion by Education Ministry, universities

The Ministry of Education will meet with university officials on Monday and Thursday to discuss possible changes to the International Education Quality Assurance System (IEQAS).

The Ministry of Education's office in Sejong [NEWS1]

The Ministry of Education will meet with university officials on Monday and Thursday to discuss possible changes to the International Education Quality Assurance System (IEQAS).

The Education Ministry will finalize any changes around the end of August and apply them starting with the 2025 IEQAS certifications.

The ministry uses IEQAS certifications to evaluate the quality of degree and language study programs, looking into factors such as student support provided by universities. Certified universities face eased student visa regulations and can allow their students to work longer hours in part-time jobs during the semester. Universities with excellent certification receive additional benefits when inviting students for the government's Global Korea Scholarship.

Universities that fail to be IEQAS-certified must undergo another examination — the Survey on Attracting and Managing Foreign Students. Those who also fail this examination either face stricter student visa regulations or are banned from issuing student visas for a year, depending on the quality of their education.

Creating a separate IEQAS certification metric for vocational universities' degree programs is one of the agendas to be discussed during the two meetings. Currently, there are two separate IEQAS metrics, one for degree programs and another for language study programs.

The discussions follow complaints from many vocational universities that it is hard to satisfy the IEQAS criteria for degree programs, which they say are fit for universities focusing on academic programs rather than career-focused training.

Possible changes include considering universities' efforts to create industry-academia partnerships, which are important for vocational universities to develop career programs and joint projects. Easing the tuition-to-scholarship ratio and dropout rate criteria will also be discussed.

Another possible change for IEQAS evaluations of degree programs is how the illegal stay rate is calculated.

The current equation calculates the illegal stay rate by dividing the number of illegal residents the university had in the past year by the number of international students newly admitted in the past year. The Education Ministry will discuss allowing universities to divide the number by their total international student body.

The metric's career and employment support criterion may also consider how much the university supported international students in getting jobs in the region, encouraging students to settle in areas where the university is based.

Changes to the language proficiency criteria will also be discussed, requiring universities to have a larger number of Korean-proficient students to be certified.

To satisfy IEQAS' language proficiency criteria for degree programs, universities are currently required to have at least 30 percent of their international freshmen at TOPIK level 3 or above, or its equivalent. At least 40 percent of their total international student body also needs to have TOPIK level 4 or above, or its equivalent.

However, the Education Ministry will discuss requiring at least 40 percent of freshmen to have TOPIK level 3 or above, or its equivalent, for universities to satisfy the criterion.

With a stricter criterion, the Education Ministry said it will allow universities to show their students' Korean proficiency in additional ways. Substituting TOPIK scores with a certification that the student participated in a one-year language study program with additional approval from the university is one suggested example.

Regarding the IEQAS metric for language study programs, the Education Ministry is considering creating a TOPIK criterion.

To satisfy it, universities will need to have at least 30 percent of students who completed a long-term language study program — courses that are a year or longer — at TOPIK level 2 or above. Currently, there is no TOPIK-related criterion for language study programs.

The Survey on Attracting and Managing Foreign Students' language proficiency criteria currently require at least 10 percent of their freshmen to have TOPIK level 3 or above and at least 10 percent of the entire international student body to have TOPIK level 4 or above. But the ministry will discuss raising both requirements to 15 percent.

Although other changes will be applied starting with the 2025 IEQAS evaluations, the three changes regarding language proficiency will be applied starting in 2026 if agreed upon by universities.

The Education Ministry will also discuss making universities face stricter student visa regulations for up to three years if there is a severe violation of laws. Currently, universities face penalties for a year.

Once the IEQAS metrics are finalized in August, the changes will apply until 2028.

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