Tougher rules for overseas students
Published: 24 Sep. 2009, 23:51
The number of foreign students here shot up from 16,832 in 2004 to almost 64,000 last year following a government drive to “globalize” local universities by attracting more overseas students.
However, the ministry admits that quality has at times been compromised in favor of quantity, a situation the government said it now wants to rectify.
“The ministry will focus on stepping up overseas student recruitment policies in terms of quality from now on,” said Chung Il-yong, an official in charge of developing policies related to future human resources at the ministry.
“Universities should change their perception of overseas students - from a tool for increasing university enrollment to motivation for strengthening Korean universities’ international competitiveness,” Chung added.
The new guidelines note that universities should take responsibility for attracting, recruiting and managing overseas students.
Making it mandatory for universities to include interviews in the screening process, the ministry has also come up with language and other basic requirements that will limit the entry of students thought to be unqualified for local universities.
From next semester at the earliest, universities will require overseas applicants to submit either Korean or English language aptitude test results. Unless they have grade four or higher in their Test of Proficiency in Korean, or a Toefl score of over 550, they can’t get in. Schools without their own language training centers will have to set up Korean language courses for overseas students.
In addition, universities with 50 or more overseas students should have at least one employee devoted to looking after their needs, while those with 200 or more should establish an independent organization for them. The ministry will also limit unconditional tuition exemption for overseas students.
A ministry survey of 345 universities in June showed that 22 were “inappropriately managing” overseas students and received notification of how to correct their circumstances. Of those 22, 12 saw the portion of dropouts among overseas students range between 75 and 94 percent, while the rest experienced insolvent operations concerning their expat student communities. They issued admission to unqualified students just because they were from overseas and exempted tuition fees for all incoming students from abroad, unconditionally. Some of the schools turned out to give credits to those who failed to meet the minimal attendance requirements.
“Some schools in regions other than the Seoul metropolitan area suffering financial difficulties take advantage of overseas students to earn money. We also found some well-noted schools picked overseas students just to receive better marks in their ‘globalization assessment,’ which counts the portion of foreign students,” said the ministry in its statement. Of course there were students with excellent qualifications but many of them wouldn’t even have made it to schools at home.”
It added that sizable portion of foreign students - Chinese, in particular - entered Korean schools to facilitate visa acquisition here and then work illegally. “Last December 10 Chinese students at a private university in South Chungcheong were caught fabricating their high school transcripts and diplomas through Korean brokers. They were charged with illegal immigration while working at an industrial complex. It turned out they paid up to 10 million won ($8,307) each to the brokers for enabling them to enter Korea.
The ministry said it will reflect on how well universities follow the new guidelines in annual university evaluations and have related government agencies conduct on-site inspections every year.
By Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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