The number of foreign students studying in Korea exceeded 200,000 for the first time this year

The number of foreign students studying in Korea exceeded 200,000 for the first time this year. According to the Ministry of Education (MOE) on Wednesday (September 4), as of April this year, the number of foreign students studying for a degree or language in South Korea reached 208,962, up 15 percent from 181,842 last year.

Since the number of foreign students exceeded 100,000 for the first time in 2016, the trend has been increasing year by year. This year, 90.8 percent of foreign students are from Asia, followed by Europe (5.1 percent), North America (2 percent) and Africa (1.4 percent).

Chinese accounted for 34.5% of the total, while Vietnamese and Mongolians accounted for 26.8% and 5.9%, respectively. The university with the largest number of international students is Hanyang University with 8,264. Kyunghee University had 6,929 students, and Yonsei University had 6,621.

Among the international students, 69.8 percent were degree students, and 30.2 percent were exchange students or language study students. The Ministry of Education is pursuing a policy to attract outstanding overseas talents with the goal of attracting 300,000 foreign students by 2027.