By Na Jeong-ju
The government banned 11 colleges from admitting foreign students next year, holding them accountable for providing poor services and picking “unqualified” foreign students.
The measure increases the number of schools which have been prohibited from applying for visas for new overseas students to 17, the education ministry said Thursday.
Nineteen other colleges were also ordered to revamp their policies for foreign students based on advice from government-designated consultants.
The decision reflects concerns that some private colleges are admitting any foreign applicants to increase enrollment and boost tuition revenue. Many of these “unqualified” foreign students have quit school to work after entering the country on study visas, and become illegal sojourners, according to officials from the Ministry of Justice.
The “black-listed” schools include Hanmin University in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, Hansung University, Soongsil University, Sungshin Women’s University and Daegu Arts University. They won’t be able to apply for visas for overseas students for a year from March next year.
The result is based on evaluations of 347 universities nationwide in such categories as accommodation for international students, drop-out rates, the number of foreign faculty members and school programs for foreigners.
Some of the sanctioned schools had violated or bypassed rules to increase enrollment of international students.
For instance, Soongsil cut tuition for foreign applicants by up to 55 percent without checking their qualifications properly. As a result, some 18 percent of the 400 newly-admitted foreign students at the school dropped out and were found to be overstaying their visas.
The lax monitoring of foreign students at local schools derives from their method of vetting students. Most schools tend to hire private agencies in a specific country to evaluate applicants.
Recently, some schools, including Hanyang University, have set up branches overseas to attract talented students and professors, but that’s not common yet among Korean colleges.
The education ministry also designated 10 schools as having the best international programs. They include Hanyang, Yonsei University, Kyung Hee University, Korea University, Sogang University and Seoul National University.
The ministry will provide certificates to acknowledge the schools to help them attract more talented foreign students and professors.
The ministry has urged colleges to introduce more quality-oriented globalization programs, rather than just increasing the number of lectures given in English and accepting more foreign students.
In early October, the ministry set up the English-language website on Korean colleges (https://heik.academyinfo.go.kr/main.tw) to provide comprehensive information on Korean schools to foreign students.
The number of foreign students studying in Korea is expected to surpass 100,000 for the first time next year if it grows at the current pace, according to the ministry. As of the end of 2010, there were 83,842 foreign students from some 160 countries.
The figure has grown rapidly in recent years as Korean dramas, pop songs and movies have become more popular in many Asian and European countries.
Of the 83,842 foreign students studying in Korea, about 59,000, or 69 percent, are from China, followed by Japan with 4.6 percent and Mongolia with 4 percent, according to the ministry.