International students on Jan. 5 listen to contestants at a Korean speech contest held at Ewha Womans University in Seoul's Seodaemun-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Yoo Yeon Gyeong

The number of international students in the country has broken the 200,000 mark.

The Ministry of Education on Sept. 4 said the number of such students in April enrolled in a degree course or language school at domestic universities reached an estimated 208,962, the highest in 25 years since the government began compiling the figure in 1999.

The number nearly doubled from 86,868 in 2012 to 160,165 in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the figure to shrink, but a rebound that began in 2022 has continued for three years.

By region, 90.8% of such students or 189,635 were from Asia, followed by Europe with 10,681 (5.1%), North America 4,217 (2%), Africa 3,011 (1.4%) and Latin America 1,034 (0.5%). 

By nationality, China sent the most with 72,020 (34.5%), followed by Vietnam with 56,003 (26.8%), Mongolia 12,317 (5.9%) and Uzbekistan 12,025 (5.8%).

The number of foreign students outside of the Seoul metropolitan area this year also jumped 31.9% (22,284) to 92,019 from 69,725 in 2022. Over the same period, that in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province shot up 74.1% to 11,369 from 4,838 and that in Jeollanam-do Province soared 73.6% to 4,700 from 1,992.

The ministry attributed the rise to local government strategies to attract foreign students based on a region's demand for skilled personnel and other conditions. 

It added, "We will also revamp Study in Korea (www.studyinkorea.go.kr) to raise the convenience of international students by giving them services from the preparatory stage of study in the country to job search information."

dusrud21@korea.kr