South Korea beats foreign student target, but struggles to keep them

South Korea has surpassed its 2027 target of attracting 300,000 international students a year ahead of schedule, and universities must now find ways to retain and develop them, a new rankings assessment has shown.

First launched last year and described as the country’s most internationalisation-focused assessment to date, The Korea Times University Rankings assess institutions on seven indicators, including the ratio of exchange and international students to total enrolment, diversity of the cohorts’ nationalities, proportion of international students meeting language proficiency requirements, and foreign student retention rate.

This year’s evaluation aims to look beyond the number of international students to assess how well South Korean universities are building the broader ecosystem needed for globalisation.

Results show that while the universities have been good at attracting and managing international students, many still lag in areas such as international faculty, financial support and post-graduation outcomes.