The World On arirang

Nikita is an undergraduate student from Russia studying business administration at Ajou University.
As a fluent speaker of Korean and English, he says he's quite satisfied with his college experience.
He hopes to get a job in Korea after graduation, but he does not yet know where to go for more information about employment opportunities.

"In university, we are given academic information, not real information that we can use in practice. When you are faced with after-graduation, faced with choices about what to do, what should I do, yes, it's not enough."

The number of international students in Korea enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs as well as language courses has steadily increased in recent years from about 33-thousand students in 2006, to 89-thousand in 2012.
Most of the students come from China and other Asian nations but they also come from countries like the U.S. and Uzbekistan.
Lawmaker Lee Jasmine says it's important for Korea to invest in students from overseas.

"With the increase of international students, so comes the increase of global standards to schools itself. That's the global standard of the country itself. Having international students here, they can be like our goodwill ambassadors."

Ali, a master's student from Indonesia studying computer engineering, says more transparency is needed in the recruitment of students.
He says some of his friends studying in Korea were not given the research grant their Korean professors had promised them before their arrival.

"Sometimes when foreign students come to Korea, the reality was not really exactly what it was in the communication."

The students also complained that professors have complete authority over research and class management and they often unfairly abuse their power.


"Lawmakers who co-hosted the forum plan to relay the feedback from the students to the Education Ministry that's aiming to attract 200-thousand talented international students to Korea by year 2020. But they agree that quality control is as important as quantitative expansion.
Kim Yeon-ji, Arirang News."