Foreigners Allowed Into Night Schools
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Foreign students will be able to enroll at after-work graduate universities with the relaxation of rules, beginning next month, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Wednesday.
Under current rules, foreigners are not allowed to register at night schools, both undergraduate and graduate. ``About 1.1 million foreigners are staying here and some of them want to study after work,'' said Shin Kang-tak, the ministry official. ``The easing of rules will help attract more foreign students.’’
However, they won’t be able to enroll at undergraduate night schools even after the relaxation of the rules, the ministry said.
About 12 percent of foreign undergraduate students and 0.8 percent of graduate school students were working here illegally, it said.
The government will also relax rules on standards regarding proof of the student’s financial capability for paying for studies at Korean universities. Current regulations require foreign nationals to have at least $10,000, but from now on it will set up more flexible standards, taking into consideration differences in tuition fees and living costs depending on schools and regions.
The ministry official said Korea will continue to remove restrictions against foreign nationals to draw more students. It will also simplify and standardize application forms for university admissions for them. The number of incoming foreign students has risen to 49,270 from 32,557 in 2006 and 22,526 in 2005.