Foreign students fill in application forms for job openings during a large-scale job fair held for international students in Busan, May 23. Newsis

With the number of foreign students in Korea continuing to rise, a report released Monday showed they are densely populated in the Seoul metropolitan area, just like Korean students.

Hanyang University in Seoul had the largest number of foreign students in 2023, while the next five universities with the highest foreign student populations were also located in the capital.

According to the Korean Council for University Education, there were a total of 181,842 foreign students in Korea as of last year. This figure includes 119,237 foreign nationals enrolled in academic, master's and doctoral courses and 52,602 enrolled in language and other non-degree programs.

Hanyang University in Seoul topped the list with 6,612 international students enrolled in both categories combined. Kyung Hee University followed with 6,395 students, Sungkyunkwan University with 5,472, Yonsei University with 4,965 and Chung-Ang University with 4,480 students.

The number of foreign students in Korea has increased since 2004 when the Korean government launched the Study Korea project.

The government initially aimed to attract 50,000 students by 2010. In August last year, it announced a plan to enhance the educational competitiveness of international students and attract 300,000 international students by 2027.

The government expects the project to help overcome Korea's demographic crisis and stem the potential closing of local universities in regions outside Seoul.

The association pointed out the need for government measures to alleviate the concentration of students in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Oh Ye-jin, the association's senior researcher, said, "Apart from efforts to attract foreign students at the individual university level, the government should establish a detailed and systematic scholarship system so that excellent international students can choose Korean universities without significant regional differences."