A study has found that the percentage of foreign university students in the country has surged over the past decade. Shown are international graduates of Keimyung University on Feb. 17 throwing their caps in the air at their graduation ceremony on campus in Daegu's Dalseo-gu District. (Keimyung University)

By Charles Audouin

Students at university campuses nationwide have grown more diverse over the last 10 years.

A decade ago, not one school had foreign students comprise over 20% of the student population, but today, campuses with 10%-20% of their students hailing from abroad are growingly common.

And the pool of nationalities represented at such institutions have gone from a few dominant ones to an increasingly diverse makeup.

The Migration Research and Training Centre on Aug. 12 said this in its report on domestic institutions of higher education attracting foreign students.

The report said just 1.6% of universities in 2014 had foreign students comprising 5%-10% of the overall body, but that figure soared to 12.3% last year. The percentage of schools with 10%-15% of such students rose from 0% to 5.4% and that of those with 20% or more from 0% to 3.1%.

The percentage of universities with a foreign student population of under 5% fell from 98.4% to 78.4%.

The countries of origin of such students are growingly getting diverse. The number of their nationalities jumped from 141 in 2013 to 155 last year and that of junior or technical colleges more than doubled from 35 to 78.

Chinese students used to account for the vast majority of international students, but their share dropped sharply. The percentage of schools where they comprised 80% or more of the student population fell from 43% to 10.5%, while that of those with a Chinese population of under 20% surged from 23.3% to 51.1%.

A major trend was the substantial growth in the number of Vietnamese students, with the share of schools where they comprised 80% or more of the students surging from 0.56% to 14.8%. The figure for junior or vocational colleges was 27.4% last year, a huge jump from 0% in 2014.

"Vietnam is a major sender of foreign workers under the Employment Permit System, so the growth in the number of students from there is a notable development in immigration as well as international student policy," the center said. "We must now consider policies not only toward the number of international students but also diversity and quality management of their countries of origin."

caudouin@korea.kr