Many Korean universities are restricted from issuing visas to international students.

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice of South Korea said on February 7 that 20 language degree and certificate programs at 20 universities, including Soonchunhyang University and Nambu University, will be restricted from issuing visas starting from the second semester of the next academic year. The decision was made after the ministries conducted a certification assessment of the internationalization of education and an actual inspection of the universities' performance in attracting and managing international students.

The Korean government conducts annual evaluations of universities that offer international education certification programs and management processes related to illegal stay of foreign students. Actual evaluations of universities will be conducted even for those with a small number of foreign students. Schools will be subject to actual evaluations if the illegal immigration rate exceeds 10% for degree programs and over 30% for language training courses. Accordingly, universities that are assessed as not meeting the standards for training quality, tuition fees, and the rate of international students meeting language proficiency standards as prescribed will also be subject to visa restrictions.

In addition, the Korean government has also announced a list of 18 top universities that have achieved excellent titles for three consecutive years in terms of training quality, management ability, and maintaining the rate of illegal students below 2%. These universities include Ewha Womans University, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Hanyang University, and Hongik University. These universities will receive additional points for government scholarship programs.