The Korean government has announced it will table regulatory reforms to promote overseas expansion of the country’s universities. The reforms will include allowing overseas branch campuses as well as increasing recognition for inter-university courses. Under current rules, institutions can only establish offices abroad that can carry out teaching activities but are indepdendent of the original school legally and financially.

The revised regulations will only take effect in August, and before then the Ministry of Education is conducting a round of consultations with Korean universities, to seek their opinions and gauge interest in international expansion.

There are some limited examples of existing internationalisation. Inha University is Uzbekistan is a joint venture with the government of Uzbekistan, but is a separate entity from the home university. Korea University in Seoul is cited as an example of a university with various international exchange programmes.

Commentary by JayRyung Song, Education Marketing Manager, British Council Korea (jayryung.song@britishcouncil.or.kr):

There are some logical reasons for Korean universities to look abroad for establishing branch campuses. As the source article states there is a significant Korean population in Uzbekistan, and the same is the case in other Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Prospects for domestic growth are also limited. Korea already has the highest tertiary education enrolment rate coupled with a shrinking youth population. Korea also has well developed universities, depending on which ranking system is used Korea has between four and seven universities in the world’s top 200. Further development of Korea’s higher education sector depends on international expansion and the sector is well positioned for this if the right regulatory framework is in place.