2006
Spring American Education Fair
- Korea Post-Fair Report
It is AIEF’s pleasure to announce the success of this year’s Spring American Education Fair in Korea. Many thanks to the U.S. educational institutions, corporate exhibitors, and sponsors that participated in the event. AIEF’s post-Fair report covers the activities of the 2006 Spring American Education Fair in Korea, and includes the schedule and registration information for our 2006 Summer and Fall Fairs:
Pre-Fair Orientation: Korean Student Market Status
Speaking at the pre-Fair Orientation at the Oakwood Premier Hotel in Seoul, U.S. Embassy consular official Mr. Peter Barté presented an informative briefing to the American education delegation on the morning of Saturday, March 25th. Mr. Barté described the consular section’s education outreach activities in Korea, including student visa presentations at local colleges and universities, seminars at Fulbright offices, tours of consular services for students, and digital video conferences. He reported that over 36,000 student visas were issued in 2005, an increase of over 10 percent from 2004.
Stephen Smith, director of AIEF’s Washington office, mentioned AIEF’s extensive pre-fair publicity in the local media, on the Internet, and through signage and posters. Imparting statistics from the most recent “Open Doors” report, he noted that in 2005 there was a nearly 2 percent increase over the previous year in the number of Korean students studying in the USA, bringing the total number up to 53,358. Mr. Smith also pointed out the current trend for Korean companies to increasingly send their employees abroad for management and IT training is a phenomenon to which American institutions should pay attention as a potential market to develop.
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Seoul Fair Statistics
As part of the Korean Student Fair in COEX, the 2006 Spring American Education Fair in Seoul took place on March 25-26. Attendance at the Student Fair was estimated at over 30,000, with over 6,500 fairgoers visiting the American Pavilion.
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Seoul Fair Highlights
Located prominently to the left of the main entrance to the Korea Student Fair exhibition area at COEX in Seoul, the American Pavilion was reserved only for official U.S. school representatives. Besides directing student traffic and gathering student information for participating schools, our staff also offered free on-site counseling at the AIEF booth. We are grateful to the representatives from the U.S. Embassy and the Fulbright office in Korea who were on hand at their respective booths throughout the event to answer questions posed by the public.
AIEF arranged for students from local Korean colleges and universities (identified by yellow vests) to interpret for each of the participating American schools, and provided each booth in the American Pavilion with a Korean-language sign introducing the essential information about each institution. AIEF also distributed free color maps of the USA to the American Pavilion’s visitors. The maps served as handy guides to assist students in determining the geographical locations in the USA of the participating American educational institutions.
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Seoul Special Seminars
In Seoul, a series of seminars for students were held in conjunction with the American Education Fair. Fulbright representatives addressed the launch of the iBT TOEFL Test in Korea, and U.S. Embassy consular officers Ms. Alice Chu and Mr. Dovas Saulys conducted presentations on the student visa application process. Seminars on ESL programs and conditional admissions were also offered by participating institutions.
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AIEF’s Student Tracking System
Pre-Fair registration was offered as a service to students, and visitors to the American Pavilion were encouraged to register their educational goals and contact details in AIEF’s student tracking system. The registered student data has been entered and distributed to schools that participated in the fair.
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Seoul Social
At the Si Gul Jip (Country House) restaurant near COEX, on the evening of Saturday, March 25th, fair participants were treated to the friendly companionship and appetizing cuisine at this traditional Korean restaurant. KTF president Mr. Hongyu Lee, co-host of the dinner, extended a warm welcome to the U.S. school representatives and offered a toast to wish everyone success at the fair.
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Busan Fair
Attendance at the Busan fair, organized by KTF at BEXCO was estimated at over 1,500 visitors.
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2006
Summer & Fall Fairs
Registration is now open for AIEF’s 2006 Summer American Education Fairs in China and 2006 Fall American Education Fairs in Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan. The upcoming 2006 Fair schedule is as follows:
Summer:
Shanghai - July 14-16
Beijing - July 21-23
Fall:
Singapore -September 21
Seoul – September 23-24
Busan – September 26
Taipei – September 30 - October 1
Kaohsiung – October 2
Taichung – October 3
Online registration is available at:
http://www.aief-usa.org/services/signup_fair.htm.
For more information, please visit our website or call the AIEF office in California at 626-965-1995.
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