Korea shifts international student policy from numbers to quality

South Korea is shifting its international student policy from attracting ever larger numbers to improving the quality of education, protecting students and helping more graduates find jobs and settle in the country.

The Ministry of Education unveiled the strategy Tuesday after Korea surpassed its goal of hosting 300,000 international students a year ahead of schedule.

According to ministry data, 307,464 international students were studying in Korea in 2026, up nearly 70 percent from about 182,000 in 2023. The government had aimed to reach 300,000 by 2027 under its Study Korea 300K Project.

The ministry said its next strategy would focus on attracting and developing outstanding global talent while addressing weak student protections, difficulties entering the Korean job market and limited opportunities to connect with local communities.

The ministry said international students remain vulnerable to misleading or exaggerated advertising by recruitment agencies, poor academic management at universities and substandard education at some institutions.

It specifically cited cases in which universities failed to issue refunds to students who had been accepted but were unable to enroll after their visas were denied. The Korea Herald reported in July that some financially distressed junior colleges had delayed tuition refunds totaling up to 1 billion won ($745,000).

To strengthen protections, the ministry plans to introduce new guidelines and pursue legislative amendments.

In a survey of 8,300 international students, 17.8 percent said recommendations from recruitment agencies were a major factor in choosing a university.

The ministry will draft and distribute a standard agreement between universities and recruitment agencies in October. The agreement is intended to make universities more accountable for agencies they use to recruit students overseas.

It would require universities and agencies to provide accurate information about academic programs, degrees and conditions for working alongside studying, while prohibiting misleading or exaggerated advertising.

Students would also have to be informed in advance about tuition refund procedures, methods and amounts. If admission is canceled because a visa is denied, the university would be required to refund the tuition directly to an account in the student’s name.

Recruitment agencies would be required to submit information requested by universities, while universities would be responsible for monitoring their recruitment practices.

The ministry plans to pursue amendments to the Higher Education Act later this year to make key provisions of the agreement mandatory and establish grounds for issuing corrective orders over violations.

It will also issue guidelines for verifying overseas academic credentials and expand university consulting and other support through the Korea Academic Recognition Information Center.

The ministry will also overhaul the International Education Quality Assurance System, which evaluates universities’ ability to educate and manage international students and links the results to visa screening.

Universities are currently assessed on international student recruitment and management, academic and living support, language proficiency and dropout rates.

Under the present system, universities must meet one mandatory indicator and can select six of nine additional indicators when seeking certification. Beginning with the fifth certification cycle from 2029-2032, indicators considered essential to international student education and management will become mandatory.

The ministry will also gradually raise the required share of international students meeting recognized Korean- or English-language proficiency standards from 40 percent in 2026 to 60 percent by 2030.

Evaluations of academic and student-life support will shift from whether universities simply operate such programs to the quality of their content.

Universities deemed to lack basic educational conditions will face tougher restrictions. Institutions that fail institutional accreditation or private universities classified as financially distressed for two consecutive years will be placed in the lowest IEQAS category.

That designation will restrict visa issuance for newly admitted international students, effectively limiting further recruitment. The ministry also plans to step up inspections of inadequate academic management and human rights violations involving international students.

The strategy also seeks to close a long-standing gap between recruiting international students and helping them build careers in Korea after graduation.

Of the 14,966 international graduates classified as eligible for employment in 2024, 4,993 found jobs in Korea, producing an employment rate of 33.4 percent. That was up from 21.7 percent a year earlier.

The gap was particularly wide among recipients of the Global Korea Scholarship. While 83.8 percent said they intended to work in Korea, only 28.3 percent had succeeded in finding employment.

Beginning in 2027, the government will publish a guide explaining Korea’s recruitment process, occupations and workplace culture.

The Study in Korea platform, which collects job postings for foreign nationals from multiple employment services, will also offer personalized listings based on students’ preferred fields and regions.

Universities and special zones for education internationalization will be encouraged to expand programs connecting students with local communities. A 24-hour artificial intelligence chatbot offering counseling in students’ native languages will be linked to professional counselors when further assistance is needed.

The government also plans to align international student policy more closely with regional labor demand.

More than 60 percent of international students who intended to work in Korea preferred jobs in Seoul, according to 2025 data cited by the ministry, highlighting a mismatch between graduates’ preferences and labor shortages in regional industries.

Beginning in 2027, the government will introduce a certification program for academic departments considered particularly effective at educating international talent.

Departments offering high-quality curricula linked to regional industries and showing results in helping international students find jobs and settle locally will be eligible for government funding and additional scholarship allocations.

The ministry also plans to increase the share of science and engineering students among graduate-level Global Korea Scholarship recipients from 43 percent this year to 45 percent in 2027.

Outstanding master’s students will receive support to continue into doctoral programs, while those with strong research records may receive additional incentives. Preferential visa treatment for high-performing science and engineering scholarship students will also be considered in cooperation with the Justice Ministry.

“We will now focus on attracting and fostering outstanding talent so that international students can use their studies and experiences in Korea to play active roles both in our society and around the world,” Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin said.