KOREAN NET

International students participate in a consultation program on Sept. 27, 2024, as part of a job expo hosted at Kyungsung University in Busan’s Nam-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Gil Kyuyoung

Busan Metropolitan City will establish a "one-stop" support system for international students designed to attract them and help them with education, job searches and settlement.

The city said in a news release on Jan. 22 that it came up with the plan, which will contain strategies to introduce such support system and to improve international students' settlement conditions, in order to make the city good for study so that it can advance to become a global hub city.

Under the plan, the city has set up a quota for overseas students at 18,000 this year, which will include 15% in the fields of natural sciences and engineering and 27% for those who will apply for work visas.

To support job searches for these students, the city will open a consultation booth inside the Busan Global City Foundation to offer consulting services for them. The city will manage and identify demand for foreign workers from firms and connect job searches with visas in order to resolve imbalances between job search and employment, and host job expos. It will also support job training and run special lectures on employment and how to start businesses in the region.

To attract more students, the city and universities in the region will jointly hold special sessions on studying in Busan in April and May in Japan and in September in China, Mongolia and Central Asian countries.

The staff of the city's Youth & Industrial-Academic Support Bureau said, "This year, we will carry out a customized support policy for international students designed to meet demand in the region through the regional innovation and education (RISE) program designed to pursue innovation through a university support system."

"We will make concerted efforts to achieve the goal of attracting 30,000 overseas students in 2028."

gilkyuyoung@korea.kr