SNU eyes five Asian countries for recruitment to new international-only undergraduate division

Seoul National University (SNU) is considering designating priority recruitment markets for a new undergraduate division that will exclusively admit international students.

SNU discussed a proposal to prioritize Taiwan, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam in recruiting students for its new division of global talent, set to open in the fall semester of 2027, during a university senate meeting on Thursday, the JoongAng Ilbo exclusively reported Monday.

The division will be SNU's first undergraduate program composed entirely of international students, aimed at attracting talented students from overseas and strengthening the university's global competitiveness.

The university senate approved the establishment of the division in April, while the latest meeting focused on more detailed operational arrangements.

The proposal presented at the meeting outlined a recruitment strategy that would prioritize promotional activities in countries and schools with strong pools of talented students and high levels of interest in studying in Korea.

Alongside the five countries considered, leading schools in these regions were also named as priority recruitment targets, including Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School and Taipei First Girls High School in Taiwan, the High School Attached to Northeast Normal University in China and the United Nations International School of Hanoi in Vietnam.

“We are not simply prioritizing countries that have produced large numbers of successful applicants,” said Cha Suk-won, SNU's vice president for global affairs. “We are focusing on places with well-established systems for nurturing talent, such as gifted schools and international schools, where a high proportion of applicants are academically outstanding.”

SNU said it is also developing more proactive recruitment measures, including inviting students from its target schools to visit the university.

The proposal introduced a “fly-in program” that would bring outstanding high school students from overseas and prospective incoming students to SNU. Rather than offering one-off campus experiences, the university aims to use the program as a targeted recruitment initiative to attract promising applicants.

University officials are also preparing to visit priority recruitment regions in person. Faculty and staff from the University College are scheduled to travel to Vietnam in January 2027 to introduce the university's admissions guidelines to prospective applicants. Additional visits to countries including Kazakhstan are also under consideration.

SNU has also completed its review of detailed operational arrangements for the new division, including its academic structure and faculty recruitment.

Under the proposal, incoming students will be required to take Korean-language courses suited to their proficiency levels, as determined by their Test of Proficiency in Korean (Topik) scores.

Students will then choose between two academic tracks: humanities, social sciences and arts, or science and engineering. They will subsequently be able to pursue at least one major offered by departments across 10 of the university's undergraduate colleges. 

The University College also intends to recruit new faculty members to teach courses specifically designed for international students, including global Korean studies and Korean-language courses.

However, as details of the new division's operations have emerged, calls have grown within the university for greater consultation with existing undergraduate students and for their views to be reflected in the decision-making process.

Although students admitted to the new division will be recruited outside the university's regular enrollment quota and will therefore not affect the number of places available to Korean students, concerns remain that the program could strain educational resources and student welfare services, including classrooms, dormitories and scholarships.

The SNU student council has called on the university administration to adequately reflect student opinions since the proposed establishment of the division under the University College became public last year.

At the time, the administration maintained that the proposal had no direct connection to existing undergraduate admissions units. 

However, students from the college of liberal studies and the university college's interdisciplinary program, which fall under the same college as the new division, have expressed concerns that resources and support available to existing students could be reduced.

“We intend to consult with the university administration to establish a process for gathering feedback from existing members of the university community, particularly students, before the new division begins full operations,” a source from the council of college student representatives at SNU said.

BY LEE GYU-RIM [[email protected]]