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Why Recruit in Korea?
Korea's education market
is booming.
U.S.
academic institutions will find tremendous opportunities to attract Korean
students, thanks to the nation's recent liberalization of its educational
system. For the first time, Koreans
are permitted to attend overseas elementary, middle and high schools.
This decision is expected to greatly increase the number of younger
students at overseas primary and secondary schools, preparatory academies, ESL
programs and, ultimately, colleges and universities.
Continued double-digit growth in Korean visa applications is anticipated.
At
the same time, Korea's economy is booming.
As a result, consumer spending has surged, and parents' enthusiasm for
their children attending international schools has sharply risen as well.
In 2001, Korean students participated in educational programs in
74 countries.
They sent more than 44,000 students to the United States, according to
the Open Doors Report, making them the nation's fourth largest group of
international students. Canada,
however, has become the world's largest destination for Korean students.
It supplanted the U.S. in 1999 for the first time, and attracted more
than 53,000 students.
According
to the Bank of Korea, tuition payments to all countries are expected to increase
significantly over the next few years. The Korean government is abolishing its Foreign Exchange
Control Act, which restricted money transfers to $10,000.
This liberalization of foreign exchange transactions will
make studying in the U.S. more convenient and viable.
The
Korean market looks especially promising not only for primary and secondary
schools, but also for educational training in the fields of language courses,
business administration, fashion, art and technical programs.
Including tuition and living expenses, the average annual expenditure per
Korean student attending overseas institutions is estimated at more than
$30,000, according to the U.S. State Department.
Additional opportunities exist for U.S. academic
institutions thanks to a $28.6 billion five-year spending plan announced by the
Korean Ministry of Education. Two
major program goals are to increase Internet access in the classroom and provide
better English language instruction. U.S.
representatives will find greater interest for cooperative programs, as well as
distance learning programs. Indiana University recently announced plans to launch a MBA
course for Korean students by offering a webcasting license to a Korean firm.
There has never been a better time to
recruit Korean students to your academic institution.
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