No. of students studying overseas falls

Economic slump puts pressure to curtail education spending

The number of South Korean students studying in foreign colleges for degrees decreased this year for the first time in seven years mainly due to the economic slump, according to a government report, Monday.

Money remittance from parents in Korea to their children studying overseas also dropped from a year earlier, indicating that rising consumer prices coupled with a protracted slump have curtailed spending on education.

The number of Koreans enrolled in foreign universities as of April 1 was 154,178, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier. The number had increased from 100,716 in 2005 to 113,735 in 2006, 123,965 in 2007, 152,852 in 2010 and 164,169 in 2011.

Remittances to students studying abroad also fell 5.8 percent year-on-year to $3.35 billion through September this year, reflecting the decline in the number of outbound students, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Bank of Korea.

It marks the first on-year decline since 2005. Outbound South Korean students increased in 2008 even amid the global financial crisis.

Including those who are taking language courses overseas, the number reached 239,213, down 8.8 percent from a year earlier.

“The protracted worldwide slump following the 2008 financial crisis reduced the number of outbound students as well as the number of inbound students,” a ministry official said.

The number of foreign students in South Korea fell 3 percent from a year earlier to 86,878 this year, also marking the first decline since 2005.

By country, 30.7 percent of South Korean students headed to the United States, followed by 26.3 percent to China and 8.6 percent to Canada. English-spoken countries accounted for 55.1 percent of the total.

Of all foreign students in Korea, 63.8 percent is from China, followed by Japan and Mongolia with 4.7 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

The country’s education balance recorded a net loss of $3.31 billion through September this year as inbound students only spent $38.4 million, down 20.2 percent from the previous year.

In order to improve the balance, the government plans to double the number of foreign students in domestic universities to 200,000 by 2020 by boosting the quality of higher education and improving recruitment policies. <The Korea Times/Na Jeong-ju>