- South Korea crossed a historic milestone, enrolling a record 204,000 international students in the first half of the year, a 50.6% year-on-year rise and the first time six-month enrollment exceeded 200,000.
- China and Vietnam led the inflow, while Uzbekistan emerged as a key Central Asian contributor, sending around 5,000 students and highlighting its growing role in global student mobility.
- The surge reflects broader global education shifts, driven by South Korea’s expanding English-taught programs, cultural influence, and proactive recruitment, alongside Uzbekistan’s rising outbound student numbers worldwide.
South Korea has marked another historic event when it comes to the mobility of international students, as it has attracted a record 204,000 international students for the first six months. This is worth mentioning since it marked a 50.6 percent increase over the same period before, showing that for the first time, the six month intake has surpassed 200,000 students according to South Korea’s Korea Tourism Organization. This rising intake signifies that South Korea is increasingly becoming an attractive educational destination.
China still tops the list of countries in the pool of foreign students, with a substantial number of 112,000 students, representing more than half of the total number of students that enter South Korea. Vietnam, with a number of 33,000 students, follows suit, indicating massive support from within Asia itself. Students from Japan and Mongolia follow suit in their substantial contribution to the pool of students, indicating that Asia is indeed very much a part of South Korea’s educational system in Korea. Uzbekistan, a prominent member in central Asia, follows suit with a substantial entry of 5,000 students from Uzbekistan in South Korea.
The South Korean record-breaking enrollment is part of the broader international student mobility trend. UNESCO statistics indicate Uzbekistan among the leading countries in terms of the number of students abroad, with about 109,900 Uzbek nationals studying in overseas institutions globally.
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Although China and India continue to be the world leaders in the number of outbound students with over a million and about 508,000 nationals abroad respectively, others like Vietnam with 137,000 and Germany with 126,400 have distinguished themselves in their contributions to the global education mobility. The countries of preference by these internationally mobile learners remain the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Canada.
The active engagement of Uzbekistan in this global phenomenon indicates a change in its academic interests. The increased number of Uzbek students choosing to study overseas not only improves Uzbekistan’s image in the global community, but it also builds stronger ties for it in the region in terms of academic cooperation. The increased number of Uzbek students in South Korea indicates Uzbekistan’s endeavors to promote academic diversity on a global scale for its young generation.
All this news can also be related to other data that reveals that tens of thousands of Uzbek nationals studied in foreign countries in 2025, with South Korea being one of the most popular countries for Uzbeks to pursue higher education at abroad. The ever-rising number of both Uzbeks studying in foreign countries as well as foreign nationals studying in South Korea clearly reveals the changed dynamics in the landscape of education mobility in the international arena, with countries in Central Asia being part of this dynamic shift.
