International students

2025: international students enrolled at higher education institutions in Korea numbered 253,434 people.
Of these, 179,190 are in degree programs and non-degree programs account for 74,244 people.
1999 3,418 to 74.1-fold.
By province, Seoul has 82,911 persons and Gyeonggi 49,040, in that order.
The largest field of study is humanities and social sciences, with 76,770 people.
By nationality, Vietnam has 116,005, and China 78,645, in that order.

Source: KEDI Education Statistics Service Status of International Students at Higher Education Institutions.

Note: Field of study, university, and nationality are as of 2025. These counts cover enrolled students, a different population from the study (D2) and general training (D4) registered foreigners in the MOJ yearbook, so the two cannot be added together or substituted for each other.

Table 1.Program composition by province, 2025Unit: persons

Year

Rank	Province	Degree program	Non-degree	Total

Source: KEDI Education Statistics Service.

Note: Moving the year redraws the table with that year's values. Only the split between degree and non-degree programs is available by year, so detailed levels such as bachelor's and master's are broken out for the latest year alone.

Figure 1.International students, 1999–2025Unit: 10,000 persons

Source: KEDI Education Statistics Service.

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Year	Total	Degree program	Non-degree

Table 2.Field of study, 2025Unit: persons

Year

Field of study		Persons

Source: KEDI Education Statistics Service.

Note: Fields of study in this table combine undergraduate and graduate enrollment.

Figure 2.International students by nationality, 2020–2025Unit: 10,000 persons

Source: KEDI Education Statistics Service.

Note: The yearbook publishes only the top 8 nationalities each year, so those 8 are plotted.

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Year	Vietnam	China	Uzbekistan	Mongolia	Nepal	Myanmar	Bangladesh	Japan

Table 3.20 universities with the most international students, 2025Unit: persons

Year

Rank	University		Total	Degree program	Non-degree

Source: KEDI Education Statistics Service.

Note: Main campuses and branch campuses are listed under separate school names.

Table 4.Top 20 nationalities, 2025Unit: persons, %

Year

Rank	Nationality		International students	Share

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook on Immigration and Foreign Policy (Student and language-training statuses of stay).

Note: This table counts statuses of stay instead of school enrollments, so the total differs from Table 1.