Korea seeks to facilitate cooperation between universities, municipalities and companies as it pushes for a paradigm shift in policies to attract more international students, Education Minister Lee Ju-ho said, noting that the plan is aimed at preemptively securing skilled foreign workers for high-tech industries and boosting the global competitiveness of the country.
During an interview with The Korea Times on the occasion of the New Year, Lee, who also serves as the deputy prime minister, said the government’s new policies concerning international students will extend beyond academic pursuits to encompass their employment and settlement in the country.
“In the past, attracting international students was the responsibility of each university, but under the new policies that we are now aiming for, universities, local governments and companies will closely cooperate to help schools recruit more foreign students who are suitable for their strategies and visions and achieve internationalization,” the minister said.
“This will also contribute to alleviating the growing regional disparity.”
In August, the ministry announced the “Study Korea 300K Project,” under which the government aims to attract 300,000 foreign students to study at domestic universities by 2027.
The ministry cited the United Kingdom, which aims to invest 35 billion pounds ($44.8 billion) to attract 600,000 foreign students by 2030, and France working to simplify the process of obtaining visas to draw 500,000 foreign students by 2027, as examples of intensifying global competition to attract students from abroad.
Lee said, that through the project, the government will push to diversify the nationalities of students coming to Korea.
“In particular, we will receive more students for master’s and doctorate programs in the natural science or engineering fields from countries such as Poland, the United Arab Emirates and India where demand for bilateral economic cooperation in defense and nuclear power businesses is high,” Lee said.
“We will also expand student exchanges with the United States and Japan.”
Lee said the ministry will establish departments dedicated to attracting international students at Korean Education Centers located around the world in 2024 to offer more systematic support those wishing to study in Korea.
However, there are growing concerns that some universities, grappling with financial instability due to diminished enrollments, might exploit the national project to attract more foreign students for survival, rather than focusing on efforts to enhance their educational capabilities. Critics say students could be lured by these universities due to a lack of information.
Addressing such concerns, Lee stressed that the project is not focused only on increasing the physical number of international students but also on helping the students map out their career paths and settlements in Korea.
“We have already cooperated with the Ministry of Justice and other relevant ministries to check universities’ management of foreign students,” Lee said.
“We will take appropriate measures against schools neglecting their duty in this regard, including giving disadvantages in visa issuance.”
Lee added that the government is overhauling its online system (www.studyinkorea.go.kr) to offer more comprehensive and accurate information to those wishing to study in Korea.
Education reforms
The minister, who took office in November 2022, has played a pivotal role in championing education reforms — a key component among the three areas of change pursued by President Yoon Suk Yeol, alongside labor and pension reforms.
However, a series of suicides among school teachers, including a tragic incident where a teacher in her 20s took her own life inside her classroom at Seo2 Elementary School in southern Seoul on July 18, triggered an unprecedented crisis in the education sector, drawing attention to the challenge facing teachers’ authority in classrooms.
Education Minister Lee Ju-ho, right, speaks during a dialogue session with a group of teachers at the Government Complex Seoul, Dec. 1. The minister has held such a session every week since September to address concerns over teachers’ falling authority in classrooms, following a series of suicides among school teachers in 2023. Courtesy of Ministry of Education
Although police did not detect any criminal acts, many teachers across the country believe that their deceased colleagues were all under excessive stress due to demanding parents. Teachers held street rallies in Seoul and other parts of the country every weekend from July 22 to demand the government improve protection for teachers.
As the controversy grew, the minister has held dialogues with groups of teachers every week since September in a bid to reflect their voices in forming the government’s education policies.
“Since December, the dialogue sessions expanded to include parents and students to enhance communication between those involved in the education sector and make positive changes,” Lee said.
“I will continue to actively accept opinions raised by those in the field to create more practical policies.”
Education Minister Lee Ju-ho, fifth from right, poses with other officials during his visit to an AI learning center at an elementary school in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Nov. 29. Courtesy of Ministry of Education
The minister stressed that education reforms are an urgent task needed to address three major challenges faced by the country — the demographic cliff, which refers to a major decline in the working population, deepening inequalities including regional disparity, and digital transformation.
He said the government will work to provide world-class education and childcare services from birth through graduation from elementary school, in a bid to overcome the significantly decreasing fertility rate that is feared to accelerate the demographic cliff.
“In response to the fast introduction of digitalization, textbooks powered by artificial intelligence will be applied to classrooms beginning in 2025,” he said.
He added, in a bid to resolve deepening regional disparity, the government will innovate various regulations imposed on local universities and strengthen support for them to induce regional development.
