The Education Ministry announced plans last week to increase the number of foreign students studying at the nation’s colleges and universities to 200,000 by 2023.

This represents a 250 percent expansion from the current level ― there were about 85,000 international students at Korean campuses at the end of last year. Since peaking at 89,000 in 2011, the number has declined, with the ratio of foreign students to domestic students standing at 2 percent, compared with the 8 percent average among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

So government officials may have been tempted to push measures to help Korean colleges bring in more foreign students, particularly at a time when some of them are suffering from financial difficulties due to falling enrollment.

But a close look at the latest plans makes one doubt their effectiveness. In the first place, many of them look similar to those announced by the Education Ministry three years ago.

Under the title of “Study Korea 2020 Project,” the ministry had set a target of 200,000 foreign students by 2020. The ministry is simply rehashing old ideas, only changing the target year.

One such old idea is providing classes consisting of foreign students. Officials said the foreign students-only classes would be in subjects including information technology, shipbuilding, nuclear energy, automobiles, health and beauty. Korea has global competitiveness in these areas and officials may well believe that foreign students will favor the proposed classes.

But this runs counter to one of the purposes of students who seek overseas education ― learning not only the subject of their study but also the local language and culture, which is maximized by mingling with local students. Besides, Korean students would also lose the chance to get acquainted with the visiting students.

The ministry’s plan to help families of international students find jobs also raises doubts about its practicality. The plan, which has already encountered opposition from the Labor Ministry, overlooked the fact that nearly 60 percent of foreign students on Korean campuses come from China, the biggest origin of illegal immigrants into the country.

Some illegal immigrants, including Korean-Chinese, exploit study visas to make money in Korea, and some universities run the risk of enrolling foreign students who intend to stay and work here illegally, solely to secure tuition revenue.

The growing mismatch between freshman openings and the number of college applicants ― exacerbated by Korea having one of the world’s lowest fertility rates ― calls upon government officials and universities to work out measures to make the nation’s institutions of higher education sustainable and competitive.

Certainly, bringing more foreign students would help Korean colleges fight dwindling enrollments. But the most urgent thing to do to help them overcome the difficulties is to carry out bold restructuring.

That would raise the level of education provided by Korean colleges, which would provide the most effective motivation for foreign students to come here.