Global reach of K-universities – The Korea Times

Struggling with the nation’s total fertility rate — one of the world’s lowest at 0.72 as of 2023 — and financial constraints, Korean universities face the stark reality of having to find ways to produce future workers, both domestically and globally. As the Korean economy still scours future markets for export-led growth, its higher education institutions should double up in their globalization outreach and attract students who are eager to pursue their academic studies here. Fast-changing technology demands that the universities take corresponding action.

It aligns with President Lee Jae Myung’s vision to have Korea join the global artificial intelligence top three, and the administration’s focus on creating 10 universities that can match the prestige of Seoul National University. Regarding globalization, the administration is striving to make Korea one of the top 10 destinations for foreign students.

Education Minister Cho Kyo-jin recently said that the government wants to create a “virtuous cycle” for foreign students, so they can study in college and build stable lives in Korea. This was part of his remarks at the 2025 Korea Times Global Conference, titled “Beyond Borders: Strengthening Global Competitiveness of Korean Universities.”

Despite the decline of Korean higher education institutions in areas such as citations in the world’s top-ranked scientific journals, the enduring global popularity of Korean content is bringing in foreign students. The number of foreign students here surpassed 200,000 in 2024 according to education ministry data. While Korean universities are academic institutions, they are also one layer of the country’s soft power.

The global conference cited that despite some skepticism about Korean universities, they are still gaining recognition. Seoul topped the most recent Best Student Cities ranking for 2026 by global higher education analytics firm QS, widely known for its World University Rankings which assess thousands of campuses globally. In the newest edition, Korea had 43 universities in the overall World University Rankings, including two in the top 50, and 46 in the Sustainability Rankings.

In this paper’s maiden K-universities Global Excellence Rankings, which seeks to evaluate institutions based on internationalization efforts, Korea University topped the list with 144.86 points across four categories. Seoul National University and Yonsei University followed in second and third, and the top 10 was rounded out by Sungkyunkwan University, Hanyang University, Sogang University, University of Seoul, Ewha Womans University, Kyung Hee University and Dongguk University.

These universities are all based in Seoul — though some have regional campuses — and boast collaborative programs with businesses and the government. But to upgrade their global competitiveness, experts at the conference called for establishing global campuses and cooperation on education and research networks. While Songdo houses the Incheon Global Campus for foreign institutions, Korean universities have yet to open campuses overseas. They should create strategies similar to those of leading foreign schools like Harvard and MIT, and offer digital learning platforms.

While supporting Korean universities in their drive toward better global outreach, the government must strike the right balance of policy intervention with autonomy for the schools to innovate. Korean universities should review and take lessons from the Singapore where government investments and global fellowship programs propelled two of its universities into the world’s Top 30. Meanwhile, higher institutions in Japan faced stiffer government regulations and insufficient funding that led to the decline of its global standings, according to experts who attended the conference.

Improvement and innovation require investment. The government recently imposed a ceiling on tuition increase for 2026. This may be good news for students, but Korean universities have not raised tuition for more than a decade. Acceleration toward the next level requires funds. Relatedly, Korea’s public education spending for college students lags behind the OECD average. According to reports, at the university level it stood at just $14,689 per student, compared to the OECD’s 2022 average of $21,444.

Education is the bedrock for Korea’s future, and it is currently being shaped by aggressive demands from evolving technologies and global uncertainties. The new landscape inevitably compels universities, the government and businesses to form a cooperative loop and produce a workforce versed in new tools that not only promotes Korea abroad, but enables it to be a global partner to other nations.

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