Undecided major student numbers stable despite government incentives

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho announces education policies for this year in January, including plans to offer funding to universities that increase the number of undecided major students. [YONHAP]

There won't be a drastic increase in undecided major students in 2026 despite government incentives, while universities are expected to admit a slightly larger international student body.

Seoul National University, Yonsei University and Korea University will allocate 8.7 percent of their admissions quota, or 991 students, for undecided majors in the 2026 academic year, according to Jongro Academy on Sunday.

For this year, the three universities selected 8.8 percent of their admission quota, or 994 students, as undecided majors.

Chung-Ang University's admission quota for undecided majors will also edge down. It plans to allocate 6.7 percent of its quota, or 295 students, as undecided majors in 2026. For 2024, it selected 6.8 percent, or 300 students, as undecided students.

Ewha Womans University plans to allocate 11 percent, or 354, for undecided majors in 2026, which is the same as 2024.

Some universities will admit more undecided majors, but only slightly increasing the number.

Kyung Hee University plans to select 183 undecided students in 2026, compared to 182 this year. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies will select 156, compared to 149 this year. Sogang University will select 266 as undecided majors, compared to 226 and Sungkyunkwan University will select 1,651 as undecided majors, compared to 1,514 this year.

Hanyang University will greatly increase the number of undecided students as it will create the new HY Inter-college for undecided majors in 2026.

The college will have a quota of 250 students, which is 8.5 percent of the total admissions quota.

Although international students are admitted beyond the admission quota, creating a new college means that there will be more room for international students.

According to Hanyang University, the HY Inter-college will admit around 300 students in total, leaving room for an additional 50 seats.

Despite the government promising incentives to universities that increase the number of undecided students, Hanyang University is one of the few universities that made changes to their admission plans.

Back in January, the Ministry of Education announced a set of funding measures, allocating funding of 441 billion won ($324 million) to private universities that innovate and 342.6 billion won to national universities that do so.

The number of undecided students is part of the assessment criteria, along with other factors such as improvements to the academic system and increasing learning opportunities for students.

Some say there wasn't enough time for universities to change their admission plans.

The government incentive was announced at the end of January, and universities had to submit admission plans for the 2026 academic year by March 30.

"It can be understood that admission plans submitted for the 2026 academic year could be very different from the actual plans universities will follow," said Lim Sung-ho, head of Jongro Academy.

While the number of undecided students isn't expected to change much, the number of international students will slightly edge up, according to the admission plans.

The 195 universities that submitted their admission plans to the Education Ministry plan to enroll 3,966 international students and overseas Korean students for the 2026 academic year, edging up 0.56 percent on the year.

Korean students who completed 12 years of education outside Korea, encompassing elementary to high school, fall under such a category.

Considering both international students and overseas Korean students aren't subject to the admissions quota, such numbers are a rough estimate.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]