The number of foreign students in Korea has exceeded 200,000. Shown are crowds of students at the main gate of Yonsei University in Seoul's Seodaemun-gu District at the start of a semester. (Yonhap News) 

By Israa Mohamed

The number of foreign students in Korea has broken the 200,000 mark.

The Korea Immigration Service under the Ministry of Justice on March 23 released a statistical report saying the number including those studying Korean was 205,167 as of late last month, up 10,577 from 194,590 in January.

In 2019, the number of international students rose to the 180,000 range but dropped to 153,000 the following year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

By type, 146,053 had a student visa (D-2) and 59,091 one for learning Korean (D-4-1). 

Most of the students hailed from Vietnam with 70,212, followed by China with 63,859, Uzbekistan 11,974 and Mongolia 11,603. 

Based on the status of foreign students announced in December last year by the Korean Educational Development Institute, Sungkyunkwan University had the most foreign students with 4,751 at the end of last year, followed by Kyung Hee with 4,439, Yonsei 4,084 and Korea University 3,432.

A student visa allows one to stay in the country for two years, with an extension dependent on the individual's academic progress.

ess8@korea.kr