South Korea’s Ministry of Education (MoE) recently launched the five-year 'Study Korea 300k Plan', which aims to attract 300,000 international students to the country's universities. 

The plan is in place to help tackle the nation’s rapidly declining school-age population and to strengthen the competitiveness of local universities, which are already seeing enrolment shortages.

Measures included in the plan to attract more international students include lifting the current requirements of the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), as well as providing financial aid for 2,700 international science and engineering students and 6,000 non-science students through the fully funded Global Korea Scholarship Programme.

The Ministry of Education also seeks to encourage overseas talent to settle in local communities by enabling students with either a master’s or doctoral degree in science and technology to receive permanent residence or Korean citizenship in three years, instead of six.

In addition, the MoE plans to organise more international exchange programmes at elementary, middle and high school level, with the hopes that they will return to enrol at Korean higher education institutions.

There is also a desire for strengthened trilateral co-operation between South Korea, the US and Japan, to pave the way for more diverse youth exchanges and study abroad programmes. Currently, students from China, Vietnam and Uzbekistan make up 68 per cent of the international student quota in Korea, with many of them studying in humanities-related fields.

What does this mean for the UK sector?

This is a significant policy development in Korea, with important implications for the UK.

The more immediate risk of the ‘Study Korea 300K Plan’ would be to the mobility of East Asian students to the UK in the coming years. This comes at a time where the UK has already been experiencing a decline in students from several countries in the region, including Malaysia and Vietnam, while Korea experienced an 80 per cent increase in international students from within East Asia between 2016-2020, including those from Malaysia and Vietnam.

The reforms and upgrades planned for Korean universities (including the expansion of English-taught degree offerings), as well as to the visa process, permitted working hours, permanent residency and citizenship requirements, and post-graduate work and training opportunities – all in support of international students - will make Korea even more attractive as a study abroad destination, especially since Korea is already a cultural powerhouse for young people in East Asia. This could further affect the UK’s ability to boost enrolment from countries in the region, once the plan is in effect.

On a positive note, the new policy to internationalise education and society in Korea could open up opportunities for collaboration between UK and Korean institutions, since it is hoped that Korean universities will offer more English-taught degree programmes. The importance of UK transnational education programmes should not be understated, as they could help mitigate potential losses from mobility. Knowing that the South Korea MoE’s preferred international partner is the US, UK universities will need to be proactive and skilled in exploring and responding to opportunities to collaborate.