S. Korea seeks to toughen college admissions guidelines for foreign students

By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government on Monday proposed a new
guideline that would make it more difficult for foreign students to receive
admission or scholarships from local universities, in an effort to screen out
unqualified applicants.
The new guideline, drawn up by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology,
is meant to better manage the increasing number of international students and
also stop universities from indiscriminate recruitment of foreign students to
meet quotas, ministry officials said.
The number of foreign students in South Korea quadrupled to 63,952 last year from
16,832 in 2004, when the government launched the "Study Korea Project" in an
effort to globalize local universities. Some of the universities had offered full
scholarships to foreigners to draw more applicants.
The ministry's guideline urges colleges to ban unconditional scholarships and to
set minimum scores in Korean and English language proficiency tests for
admission. It also requires campuses with more than 50 foreign students to have
at least one professional assistant on staff.
"With the growing number of foreign students in the country, we felt the need to
prepare an appropriate guidance to take care of students from abroad and raise
the competitiveness of Korean universities," said Ko Gye-seok, an official at the
ministry.
The ministry will also make public dropout rates of foreign students at each
campus and conduct an annual audit on universities with registered international
students, he said.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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