2026-10-08T21:43:42Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34020501 2026-09-29T02:24:44Z category_26179 category_28933 category_29110 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

<b>Internationalization of higher education in South Korea: trends, transformations, and emerging challenges</b> Madhu Sudhan Atteraya (9715661) Rushan Ziatdinov (25133794) Seong-min Han (25133795) Thakur Dhakal (12522241) Educational technology and computing Data mining and knowledge discovery Knowledge and information management Internationalization of higher education South Korea International students <p dir="ltr">South Korea has pursued the internationalization of higher education through policies and institutional initiatives aimed at increasing international mobility, strengthening global competitiveness, and enhancing the international profile of its universities. This study examines how the internationalization of South Korean higher education has evolved, identifies its major thematic transformations, and critically assesses the challenges that continue to shape this process. Eighty-two records published between 2005 and 2024 were retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science and analyzed using bibliometric analysis, keyword co-occurrence mapping, Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modelling, and qualitative content analysis of 18 closely related studies. The findings show a steady increase in scholarly attention to internationalization since the mid-2000s, while the research field remains relatively small and institutionally concentrated. Four major themes characterize its development: international student mobility and experience; policy, governance, and globalization; English-medium instruction and language; and universities, research, and global standing. The findings further indicate a shift from an emphasis on international recruitment, institutional visibility, and global competitiveness toward greater attention to student and faculty experiences, language, intercultural integration, and the quality and sustainability of internationalization. Despite substantial expansion, persistent challenges include structural inequality and institutional hierarchy, language barriers, limited intercultural integration, and tensions between quantitative indicators of internationalization and meaningful institutional transformation. The study suggests that the next phase of internationalization in South Korean higher education requires greater attention to inclusion, integration, and sustainability, alongside international mobility and global competitiveness</p> 2026-09-29T02:24:44Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.34020501.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/_b_Internationalization_of_higher_education_in_South_Korea_trends_transformations_and_emerging_challenges_b_/34020501 CC BY 4.0