The Ministry of Education has released data that shows the number of foreign students at Korean universities. Yonsei Universities ranked at the top with 4,609 foreign students, followed by Kyun Hee Universities (3,663 foreign students) and Korea University(3,116 foreign students) (as of April 2013). Most universities are top universities in Seoul and national universities in regional area. To add, programmes by Korean Language Institute in Yonsei University are well known among foreign students.

Data also reveals that the number of foreign students in Korea has been increased to 86,410 in 2014 from 81,847 in 2013. According to a government plan, Study Korea 2020, it aims to have 200,000 foreign students by 2020.