There are fears that South Korea’s rapid growth in international student numbers is unsustainable after the country met its 300,000 enrolment target two years early.
Experts believe the country can capitalise on global interest in Korean culture to expand numbers still further but only if it can get post-graduation retention, integration and employment right.
As of February 2026, South Korea hosted 314,397 international students, according to official data from the Korean Immigration Service. Vietnamese students (115,131) comprised the largest international cohort in the country, followed by students from China (78,529), Uzbekistan (20,609) and Mongolia (18,992).
It meets a goal set in 2023 under the “Study Korea 300K” initiative – and disproves experts who thought the country was “unlikely” to reach the target by the 2027 deadline.
David Tizzard, assistant professor of Korean studies at Seoul Women’s University and Hanyang University, said Korean people were also sceptical.
