Study in South Korea: Admission, Cost, Visa and Scholarships (2027)

Korea's academic year is split into two main semesters, Spring from March and Fall from September, and international admission mirrors this: most established universities run a Spring intake and a smaller Fall intake, though the exact balance varies by school. A handful of the newest international programmes, such as POSTECH's first international undergraduate cohort in 2026, currently admit only once a year and have said they plan to add a second intake later. Universities publish their own international admission deadlines rather than following one national date, and several leading universities set their Spring deadline unusually early, in July or August of the year before, well ahead of the September deadline more typical for a Fall intake.

Two language routes run in parallel. Programmes taught in Korean generally ask for TOPIK, the Test of Proficiency in Korean, and many undergraduate international tracks accept a TOPIK score, a Korean-language institute completion certificate, or evidence that a student's prior schooling was conducted in Korean, in place of one fixed pass mark; a smaller number of programmes state an explicit level, commonly level 3 for entry-level undergraduate study and level 4 or 5 for later years, specific majors, or graduate admission. English-taught programmes and English-medium tracks within otherwise Korean-taught universities instead ask for TOEFL or IELTS, again without one nationwide minimum: this project's own sample of Korean universities found stated floors from TOEFL iBT 71 to 100 and IELTS 5.5 to 7.0, depending on the university and track.

Tuition is set by each university rather than nationally, and depends more on the type of institution than on nationality. Several of Korea's national universities, including Seoul National University and KAIST, charge international students the same as Korean students, priced per college or as one flat rate; private universities such as Yonsei, Korea University and Sungkyunkwan instead set a separate, generally higher, schedule for international students. POSTECH is a further exception again: it funds a full first-semester tuition scholarship for every admitted freshman, Korean or international, so its effective undergraduate tuition is zero. Undergraduate application fees commonly run from KRW 70,000 to KRW 200,000.

International students need a D-2 student visa for a full degree programme (a separate D-4 visa covers stand-alone Korean language study, and is not covered by the figures in this file). Admitted students can work part time with prior permission from a local immigration office, generally capped at 10 hours a week on weekdays in term time for undergraduates and 15 hours for graduate students, both markedly higher on weekends and unrestricted during official vacation periods, with the cap tied to the student's TOPIK level and academic standing. After graduating, a student who holds at least an associate degree from a Korean institution, earned within the last three years, can generally move to a D-10 job-seeking visa for up to two years to look for skilled work, exempt from the points test general D-10 applicants must otherwise clear.