Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
China delists 15 Korean universities from recognized overseas institutions
Foreign students fill out job applications during the TU Global Job Fair 2025 at Tongmyong University in Busan, Nov. 6. The event was organized to help international students seeking employment opportunities. Yonhap
By Lee Hae-rin
China has removed 15 Korean universities from its list of recognized overseas higher education institutions, raising fresh concerns in Korea’s academic community, where Chinese students make up one of the largest shares of foreign students in the country.
The Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE), a body under China’s Ministry of Education that certifies foreign degrees for use in the domestic job market and civil service recruitment, updated its list of accredited overseas institutions in late October, striking 270 schools worldwide, including 15 from Korea.
Among the Korean institutions removed are Korea National Open University, Gangneung-Wonju National University, Mokpo National University and Chungbuk Provincial University, according to sources in the local education sector. A number of the delisted schools are regional universities struggling with financial pressure and demographic decline, but the latest update also affected national universities.
The removal means these universities are effectively shut out of the Chinese student market. The CSCSE will no longer certify degrees earned there by Chinese nationals, limiting graduates’ access to white-collar jobs, civil service exams and other opportunities in China that require officially recognized qualifications.
Other removed universities include 63 from the United States, one from the United Kingdom, two from Australia, three from Canada and 11 from Russia.
An official statement reportedly said the adjustment mainly targets institutions with no diploma registration records over the past five years.
After the cuts, 261 Korean universities remain on China’s roster of recognized overseas institutions.
The latest action follows an earlier round of removals at the end of July, when five Korean universities, including Daejin University and Sahmyook University, were removed from the list. With the additional 15 schools taken off in October, a total of 19 Korean institutions have been delisted this year.
The full list of updates is available on the CSCSE website.