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.

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David Tizzard, assistant professor of Korean studies at Seoul Women’s University and Hanyang University, said Korean people were also sceptical.

“If you could say to Korean people 20, 25, 30 years ago that there would be that many foreign people coming here, wanting to come here, they quite simply wouldn’t believe you,” he said.

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“People in their 40s and 50s have grown up with this idea that Korea is popular abroad, but they never believed it. In the beginning, they felt it was all just media hype. But now Korea is genuinely popular.”

South Korea has become an attractive destination for international students for several reasons: its reputable universities, the appeal of K-Pop and K-Drama, and its safe, affordable, yet high quality of life.

Tizzard also emphasised the appeal of the Korean work ethic (or “Godsaeng” a new word that fuses the English “God” with the Korean word for life “������Բ�”, meaning “a productive life”). “Here it’s about doing your best, working hard…A lot of people come here and they’re inspired by this,” he argued.

As part of efforts to boost student numbers, in May 2026 the government also announced changes to immigration policy to make it easier for people to stay post-graduation and new pathways for people to come to the country.

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Theodore Jun Yoo, associate professor in the department of Korean language and literature at Yonsei University in Seoul, said the country’s next stage of expansion should proceed with caution, adding “we don’t have the infrastructure yet to accommodate all of these students”.

Yoo, who runs the University of California Education Abroad Program, argued that the push to increase international student numbers requires longer-term thinking and planning. He suggested that universities, as well as Korean society, could need more time to prepare.

“Koreans still think of themselves as a very homogeneous society. The idea of 300,000 students who come to study in Korea are going to be here permanently to stay, that hasn’t hit them yet.” Although Yoo said that Koreans are familiar with hosting temporary workers through the Employment Permit System (which allows foreigners to work in Korea for three years), he argued that “the idea of them [foreign nationals] staying here permanently hasn’t really registered”.

But Tizzard said he believed South Korea would continue to draw a large pool of overseas learners for the foreseeable future, suggesting that the 300,000 target is only the beginning of national ambition.

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rosalind.skillen@timeshighereducation.com