What you need, and what it costs

Universities look at three things: whether your schooling matches a Korean high school graduate, whether you can follow the classes, and whether you can cover tuition and living costs. For the first, what matters is proving your documents are genuine, and the method differs by country.

• A graduation certificate and transcript from your last school are the basics. For transfer entry you also need the certificate and transcript from the university you attended.
• If you are in your final year you may apply with a certificate of expected graduation. The visa and entry, however, come only after that last semester is finished.
• If you are from one of the 21 designated countries, or earned your qualification there, your documents need an apostille or Korean consular confirmation.
• Qualifications from China can instead carry a CHESICC verification report. The documents required vary by school type, so check in advance.
• Documents in a language other than English need a translation and a translator’s confirmation. Notarisation is not required.

The Ministry of Education asks universities to select students who reach a certain level of Korean. These are those levels. A university may ask for more, but rarely for less.

TOPIK is not the only route. The Korea Immigration and Integration Programme and King Sejong Institute courses can stand in for it. Note that only a King Sejong certificate issued offline in your own country counts — taking an overseas Sejong course online while in Korea does not.

You can enter a four-year university with TOPIK level 2, but a condition follows: within your first year you must complete at least 300 hours of Korean study. Pass level 3 during your first semester and that drops to 120 hours. Missing the condition creates academic problems, so it is not a small matter.

• A year or more at the same university’s language institute, followed by the school’s own assessment, can be accepted in place of a TOPIK level.
• A student who misses level 4 by graduation may still be recognised by the university if they scored 90% of the required mark and kept 90% attendance and a C average.
• Arts, sports, science and engineering graduate programmes, bilingual programmes, exchange students and government scholarship holders may have the requirement relaxed.
• A university may designate science and engineering departments where Korean matters less, up to 20% of the whole, and those departments graduate at level 3.

Apply to a programme taught in English and your English score replaces Korean. This is where students trip. The score a university asks for on entry is not the score immigration looks at.

You can be accepted by the university and still be held up at the visa stage. If you are heading for an English track, aiming at the higher bar from the start is safer. Note that the visa figure applies as a language requirement to nationals of the 21 designated and 5 focus countries entering universities under strengthened screening, so whether it applies depends on which university you choose.

• Nationals of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa — or anyone who completed secondary or higher education there — are exempt from submitting a score.
• An English track means a programme where at least 50% of the credits needed to graduate are taught in English. Check that against programmes that are international in name only.

This is the most common confusion. Tuition is what you pay the university. The balance requirement is what must sit in your account for the visa. Students do arrive with the tuition ready and find the visa blocked because the balance falls short.

A national university costs a little over half what a private one does. In the same city and the same field, the choice of institution can mean a difference of more than ₩14m across four years. Figures also vary sharply by field — humanities, engineering, arts, medicine — so treat these as averages. You can check the actual figure for a specific university by name in our pre-check tool.

• A balance certificate must be issued within 30 days of your application. Even where a validity period is printed on it, it is accepted for at most six months from the date of issue.
• If the account is not in your name, you also need your sponsor’s employment certificate or business registration, proof of assets, and a written undertaking to cover your costs.
• For a degree programme shorter than a year, the figure becomes tuition plus living costs for the months you will stay. Language courses use the flat figure regardless of length.
• Vietnamese students are asked for a blocked-deposit study expense certificate issued by a Vietnamese bank.
• At the 39 premium certified universities financial evidence appears to be waived regardless of nationality. Practice varies by embassy, so confirm before you file.

The ministry guidance contains clauses that protect students. Knowing them lets you recognise an improper demand on the spot.

• A university taking money or commission from an agency in return for admitting students is prohibited.
• Tuition and course fees are to be paid directly in the student’s own name, and refunds returned directly to the student’s own account. A demand to send money to an agency’s account runs against this.
• Universities are told to avoid taking deposits at admission.
• Blanket fee reductions not tied to any stated selection criterion are also discouraged. An unusually generous offer is worth asking about.