American college students are being tempted by the rising reputation of Korean popular culture and an increase in English-taught applications to check within the South Asian nation, a new report from Korea College and Underwood Worldwide School (UIC) has discovered.
Citing knowledge from the Institute of Worldwide Schooling within the US and South Korea’s Ministry of Justice, the report’s authors famous that worldwide college students from the US have grown “eight-fold” because the early 2000s, surging dramatically from 834 in 2002/03 to five,909 in 2022/23.
In addition to seeing important progress in worldwide college students over the previous decade, South Korea’s worldwide training sector noticed a swift rebound following the pandemic, the report mentioned.
“These traits solidify Korea’s standing as an rising and main participant within the worldwide change of US college students,” it added.
The authors – Kyuseok Kim, IES Overseas Seoul’s heart director, and Edward Choi, an assistant professor at UIC – advised quite a lot of elements behind this phenomenon, together with a world craze for Korean pop (Okay-pop) music and acclaimed tv sequence reminiscent of Netflix’s Squid Sport, which they mentioned are “including to Korea’s reputational cache”.
“College students drawn to the Korean tradition are more and more a part of a world cultural migration. The pull of cultural immersion has turn out to be important – over the utilitarian wants of profession or tutorial mobility,” they mentioned.
“This shift, from utilitarian to cultural, is a step in a optimistic course, reinforcing long-standing efforts by each international locations to forge ties primarily based on mutual understanding and cultural change.”
However in addition they famous that South Korea’s internationalisation technique for increased training – which kicked off within the Nineteen Nineties and now goals for the nation to welcome a world pupil inhabitants of 300,000 by 2027 – seems to be “lastly paying off”.
The nation has labored to draw worldwide college students through instructional exchanges with different international locations, forging partnerships with different establishments abroad and rising the variety of English-taught applications at Korean increased training establishments.
This shift, from utilitarian to cultural, is a step in a optimistic course, reinforcing long-standing efforts by each international locations to forge ties primarily based on mutual understanding and cultural change
Kyuseok Kim, IES Overseas Seol and Edward Choi, UIC
The authors additionally picked up on “shifting views” amongst US college students in the direction of “various kinds of instructional engagements in Korea”, which they credited to a rising urge for food for short-term examine overseas alternatives.
“The strategic implications of those traits for worldwide training suppliers are profound,” the report mentioned. “With Korea’s instructional enchantment strengthening, there’s a clear indication that future program choices ought to more and more cater to the demand for shorter, extra culturally built-in abroad studying experiences.”
