By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
The Korean Language Institutes Council will play a leading role in attracting talented foreign students. Choi Ju-youl, chairman of the council, told The Korea Times that Korean language institutes are a critical gateway for foreign students who hope to study at Korean colleges.
``Foreign students first look for Korean language courses if they want to study at Korean colleges. After completing their courses, many of them apply to Korean colleges. This is why we need to work on drawing excellent international students to our institutes for the development of Korean colleges,’’ Choi said.
Founded in April 2006, the council has about 60 language institutes and many of many of them are attached to colleges across the country.
Nearly 100 Korean language educators of the council gathered at Kyung Hee University last Friday to develop various programs for foreign students, inviting officials from the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development and the Ministry of Justice.
Under the theme, ``Strategy to draw talented foreign students for the globalization of Korean universities,’’ Yeo Jong-gu, an education ministry official, presented ``Study Korea Project’’ and Kim Sam-joon of Korean Immigration Service (KIS) made a special presentation on visa policy for foreign students.
According to KIS, there are nearly one million foreigners here in Korea. Among them, about 33,000 are students. Korea is expected to have 50,000 foreign students by 2010.
In accordance with the rise in the number of foreign students, Korean language institutes have rapidly increased from six in 1990 to 32 in 2004, reaching 76 this year.
Kim Jung-sup, director of Institute of International Education at Kyung Hee University, also stressed the need for close cooperation among Korean language institutes.
Council members made some suggestions for a better education environment for foreigners during the discussion session.
They suggested that government officials need to meet regularly so that they can accommodate various projects and remove duplication in business. Also, they asked for removing the redundant visa process and supporting special funds for adopted Koreans abroad as well as promoting Korean universities at overseas secondary schools.