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| Quarantine officials disinfect a dormitory for foreign students at Daejeon University, 164 kilometers south of Seoul, Monday, amid coronavirus fears, ahead of the start of the spring semester next month. /Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
Universities are struggling to find ways of managing their Chinese student populations amid growing fears that nearly 70,000 students returning from the mainland for the spring semester could bring the coronavirus with them, according to school officials Tuesday.
The health authorities here have been calling on colleges to temporarily stop Chinese students from interacting with their Korean classmates and others on and off campus to stop the possible spread of 2019-nCoV (COVID-19). However university officials are at a loss on how to properly prevent the virus from spreading as the schools are not equipped with effective methods of monitoring or controlling possible infections.
Following a ministerial meeting outlining the challenges facing Chinese students re-entering Korea, Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae announced a plan to strengthen preventive measures to better deal with the possible spread of the novel coronavirus.
Officials have suggested students take a leave of absence for the first semester this year, and pushed universities to prepare facilities to quarantine them after they enter Korea.
Chung-Ang and Hanyang universities have designated separate dormitories to quarantine Chinese students that have contracted the virus. Kyung Hee University, which has more than 4,700 Chinese students, will also designate dormitory buildings exclusively for Chinese students on its Seoul and international campuses. A school official said more than 450 Chinese students will be quarantined for 14 days in these two dormitories.
Some universities have expressed concern that it will be practically impossible to properly manage the large numbers of Chinese students on campus.
"We are doing our best to set guidelines for the management of Chinese students based on the education ministry's policy, but even if some students do not follow our instructions, there are no rules to control them as all of them are adults who should be responsible for themselves," an official at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) said.
The school has also designated a dormitory to hold around 100 Chinese students. HUFS has already created a dedicated team to treat students remaining in the dormitory for the two week period.
"For those students who are not staying in the dormitory, our designated team will check their health and their whereabouts by phone calls twice a day for the two-week quarantine period," the official said.
While colleges are able to manage those students who have applied for dormitories, they are finding it difficult to manage international students living off campus. Although monitoring by telephone will be carried out, some school officials raised questions over its efficacy.
"We will definitely seek the cooperation of the Chinese students as much as possible to counter the contagious virus, but it is impossible to physically prevent them leaving the campus. In particular for those students, not only Chinese nationals but also other international students, who are under self-quarantine in the community, there are not many things we can do except encourage them not to go out during the quarantine period," said another university official.
