Korean universities race to attract international students but fail to retain them

This article is by Yoon Seung-jin and read by an artificial voice. When Vietnamese student Le Huong Giang came to Korea, she believed she had prepared well for the future that she hoped to build here. For months, she studied Korean and researched local universities, all while imagining a life in a country that promotes itself as a rising global education hub. But on the very first day of class, she realized that the reality was far more difficult than she had expected, with language barriers that extended far beyond everyday conversation and an environment in which it was difficult to feel a true sense of belonging. "I came to Korea with concerns about whether I would be able to keep up academically and socially," Le told the Korea JoongAng Daily with the help of an AI translation tool and Duong Tien Dat, a K-campus ambassador from Vietnam. "Even though I had studied Korean beforehand and learned a lot about the country, [adjusting to] the reality has been far more difficult than I expected it to be." K-campus is an online platform for international students, run by the Korea JoongAng Daily, that offers guidance on life in Korea. "The people around me are nice, and I haven't experienced any severe discrimination, but I often find it difficult to follow [conversations] and fully adapt," Le added. Her experience reflects a growing contradiction alongside Korea's higher education ambitions: While universities race to attract international students, many of those students continue to struggle due to language barriers and consequent integration issues. The gap starts with language barriers Though Korea has seen the number of international students more than double from 163,699 in 2021 to 328,330 as of April, data shows that this milestone has been achieved without meeting one of the most basic criteria: language requirements. The Ministry of Education recommends that universities admit students who have achieved at least Level 3 on the Test of Proficiency in Korean, or the Topik, or a score of 59 or higher on the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-based Test, or the Toefl iBT. In practice, however, many universities admit students who did not meet those standards. According to recent data from the Korean Council for University Education, more than half — or 50.1 percent — of the country's 320,000-plus international students fell short of the Education Ministry's recommended minimum language proficiency benchmarks. At universities outside Seoul, where administrative resources are often more limited, that figure rose to 58.5 percent. The issue is structural. Admission decisions are largely left to institutional discretion, and universities face no direct penalties for enrolling students who do not meet the ministry's guidelines. Language barriers lead to alienation For Korean students, the growing language divide is beginning to reshape the classroom experience itself. Group projects, presentations and discussion-based assignments often become sources of anxiety due to the potential risk of having to struggle with communication barriers on top of a difficult task. "To be honest, many Korean students, myself included, worry about group projects when we are paired with international students," one Korean student told the Korea JoongAng Daily on the condition of anonymity. "Sometimes they cannot fully understand the discussions because of the language barrier, but our grades are tied together." The frustration, however, appears to run even deeper among international students. "I know that, as a student who chose to study here, I'm the one who has to work harder to overcome the language barrier," said Juan Antonio, an international student who asked to be identified by his first name. "However, I can't help but feel discouraged when I sense that Korean students don't really want to work with us." Will AI tools solve the problem? In response to mounting concerns, many universities have begun introducing AI translation t...