South Korea Attracts International Students, but Top Degrees Still Leave Graduates Struggling for Jobs

Nearly 5,000 Hires, but a Much Larger Pool of Graduates

South Korea's Ministry of Education figures show that nearly 5,000 international graduates found work in the country in 2024, up from 1,700 in 2018. Yet the employment rate rose only from 9.6% to approximately 13.8%, while the total number of international graduates doubled. For students earning degrees at Seoul National University (SNU), Yonsei University and other leading institutions, academic success has often failed to deliver a place in the Korean workforce.

The gap matters to a government trying to attract 300,000 international students by 2027 through its Study Korea 300K project. South Korea faces a fertility rate of 0.75 and a projected shortage of 7.4 million workers by 2040. Recruiting students is one response to that shrinking workforce, but keeping them requires a working route from university to employment.

Surveys indicate that between 60% and 90% of international students hope to stay in South Korea for work. Their ambitions meet a recruitment system shaped around domestic applicants, complicated visa requirements and workplaces where Korean language skills can determine both hiring and daily responsibilities.

As of January 8, 2026, the government's response includes language support, regional university funding, a multilingual employment platform and plans to support student entrepreneurs. Graduates' experiences show why those measures must address several connected problems: finding a vacancy, passing recruitment tests, obtaining permission to work and securing duties that use their education.

A prestigious degree remains valuable, but it cannot prepare an employer's visa paperwork or make a Korean recruitment exam accessible to someone still learning the language. Those practical obstacles help explain why the rise in international hiring has produced only a modest improvement in the employment rate.

Employers Struggle With the First International Hire

Do Ngoc Minh Luong, a Vietnamese computer science graduate from SNU, encountered administrative delays during internships at two major corporations. Her experience showed that an employer could accept an international candidate before being ready to process the documents needed for that person to begin work.

Luong described the difficulty of joining a company that was still learning how to bring in foreign employees:

At one of the companies, it was slightly difficult because I think I was in the first foreigner batch,

So, it took them a while to prepare all the documents after I got accepted.

Luong identified a broader problem with employers' understanding of immigration procedures:

I feel like Korean companies don't really know much about the visa process,

Rosa Haque, a Bangladeshi graduate of Yonsei University who also earned a master's degree from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), struggled at an earlier stage: finding suitable vacancies. Searches through Google and Naver rarely produced job postings aimed at international students.

Haque often emailed human resources departments directly. Companies redirected her to their regular open recruitment cycles, where she competed on the same terms as local applicants. Her qualifications gave her access to the competition, but the recruitment process offered little accommodation for applicants with different language backgrounds or immigration requirements.

Park, a recruitment specialist working with major South Korean corporations, described a sharp decline in opportunities for foreign candidates entering junior positions. According to Park, most successful foreign hires now take place at executive level, rather than at the level where recent graduates usually begin. That leaves students seeking their first full position with fewer openings even when companies recruit international staff elsewhere in their organisations.

Korean Tests Become a Gatekeeper

Samsung, SK and other large companies use standardised recruitment tests, including exams similar to the GSAT. These tests are typically conducted in Korean. Local candidates often spend months preparing specifically for them, adding another challenge for international graduates whose technical knowledge may be stronger than their command of Korean.

Rosa Haque explained how the language of recruitment can narrow access even when a company shows interest in a candidate:

Samsung or SK and other companies have their own standardized tests which are in Korean,

They don't offer it in English.

Haque said Korean applicants devote substantial time to preparing for these exams. Foreign candidates with limited Korean proficiency must manage both the test content and the language in which it is presented. A degree in a technical subject does not remove either task from the hiring process.

Samsung Biologics recently hired Haque, but her recruitment also required substantial Korean proficiency. She had to submit a Level 5 score on the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), and her interviews took place in Korean. TOPIK provides a formal measure of an applicant's Korean language ability.

Haque said language remains a practical concern after recruitment, particularly when employees are expected to follow established workplace habits:

Even if they do get hired without learning Korean, it's difficult for them to adapt to the working culture with language constraints,

In terms of the work culture, they ask us to adopt more of the norms in Korea.

Her experience connects the hiring process with what follows it. Korean proficiency can affect whether an applicant passes an interview, understands colleagues and settles into a team. Language support therefore has a role beyond helping students complete their degrees.

Getting Hired Does Not Always Mean Using a Degree

A Vietnamese graduate hired for a software engineering internship described being moved away from technical work and into duties connected to his home country. His experience illustrates another problem facing international talent: obtaining a position, then finding that the job uses nationality or language skills more than academic training.

The graduate described his reassignment:

I was hired as an intern for a software engineering role but I was quickly transferred to a global business department handling Vietnam-related tasks,

The company did not give me a chance to apply my major and only seemed to expect me to serve as a translator.

A Myanmar national with a master's degree in ecology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences described a similar mismatch at a forestry research institute. Rather than conducting research in the field of study, the graduate was assigned administrative responsibilities.

The researcher said attempts to obtain more relevant work had produced no change:

I am only doing translation work and writing meeting minutes,

I asked my supervisor for responsibilities related to my field of study but nothing has changed.

Both experiences involve underemployment: a person has a job, but the duties make limited use of that person's qualifications. For graduates who trained in software engineering or ecology, translation and administrative assignments can leave their specialist skills unused.

South Korea's retention challenge therefore extends beyond the number of employment offers. A graduate seeking a career in a particular field also needs responsibilities that allow that training to develop. Hiring someone primarily for tasks related to their home country may fill an immediate business need while leaving the graduate's professional ambitions unmet.

Three Visa Stages and a Heavy Paperwork Burden

International graduates commonly move from a D-2 student visa to a D-10 visa for seeking work, then to an E-7 visa for specially designated activities. Each visa serves a different purpose, so finishing a degree and receiving a job offer can still leave further immigration steps to complete.

Hugo Adam, a French student at SNU and vice president of the university's international student association, said the uncertainty associated with the D-10 visa can discourage employers from making a commitment:

When you have a D-10 visa, it's really difficult—it's not stable and companies don't want to bet that you are going to stay or that maybe you will lose your visa,

It's pretty stressful for foreigners.

The E-7 stage brings detailed requirements. Its guidelines occupy 105 pages within a government document of 450 pages available only in Korean. Applicants must qualify under one of roughly 90 job codes, with requirements involving company size and recommendations from government ministries. Job codes and descriptions also change frequently.

A job code is the category under which a position qualifies for the visa. Matching a graduate with a willing employer is therefore only part of the process: the proposed work and the company must also fit the relevant immigration requirements.

Adam explained why employers may hesitate to sponsor graduates for ordinary junior positions:

From a company's perspective, sponsorship is often expensive, administratively pretty complex, and time consuming,

Many employers prefer to avoid it unless they are hiring for highly qualified positions or specific skills but not for entry level or general jobs past internships.

Andrua Haque, Rosa Haque's twin brother and the founder of a startup in Korea, said he would not consider hiring international students because of complicated paperwork and strict quotas. Regulations often require a particular ratio of Korean to foreign employees, effectively making some firms hire a local employee for each international hire.

A Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ) survey of 805 international students found that 66.7% reported difficulty obtaining the E-7 visa. The main barriers were a shortage of companies offering sponsorship and insufficient information about which employers would provide it. For small firms, those problems can make international recruitment appear costly and risky even when a candidate has suitable skills.

Hierarchy and Daily Habits Shape Working Life

Yang Lin, a 27-year-old Chinese graduate of Yonsei University, works at a small business serving Chinese clients. He linked some classmates' difficulty finding employment directly to language proficiency.

Yang described their experience:

I know some friends from university who have a hard time finding work because they do not speak the language,

Yang also described differences in hierarchy and daily routines after entering a Korean workplace:

Korea's work culture is more hierarchical,

In my home city, we have designated times for naps during lunch. At first it was hard to get used to being awake the whole day.

Siddhi Konduskar, an Indian graduate who built a career in music and film before coming to Korea, found that her previous experience carried a different weight in the Korean employment system. She described both the treatment of her earlier work and expectations about seniority:

The most challenging part has been the disconnect between how my work in India is perceived here versus back home,

But in Korea, companies—especially Korean ones—tend to be very rigid because of their hierarchy system. No matter your background, they expect you to start from below and work your way up.

Konduskar also described differences in career progression:

Domestic graduates often get promoted faster because they intuitively understand Korean work culture, while international employees may find themselves stuck unless they constantly prove their value,

Kyuseok Kim, centre director of IES Abroad Seoul, said employers may express willingness to hire foreigners, especially in sectors with shortages, yet hesitate when human resources staff anticipate communication problems. Smaller firms can also lack knowledge of visa rules and fear compliance risks, leading them to prefer domestic applicants.

Kim described the doubts some international graduates encounter within teams:

International graduates often testify to microaggression and unspoken doubts about whether a 'foreigner' can integrate fully into a team,

Microaggressions are subtle comments or actions that can make someone feel unwelcome because of their background. Alongside formal hierarchy and language demands, such treatment can make workplace adjustment harder for graduates who have already completed the recruitment and visa processes.

Starting a Business Brings Different Restrictions

Andrua Haque chose to establish a startup with a Korean friend instead of following the usual graduate recruitment route. He regarded entrepreneurship as even harder than finding employment and knew of few foreign undergraduate students who had independently opened startups.

Haque described the importance of having a local partner:

It's definitely easier for international students to find a job,

For me, I was lucky to have a Korean friend.

For Haque, the D-2 student visa created a problem between establishing a venture and receiving personal income from it. He described restrictions on being paid, owning shares and having a business in his own name without a Korean cofounder:

With the D-2 visa, you can set up a startup in Korea, but you can never gain any personal income from that,

So, while I was doing my startup, and until today, I cannot get paid legally or own stocks or have a business under my name without a Korean co-founder.

His experience shows why founding a company is not a simple substitute for employment. A student can work on a business idea while still facing restrictions on earning a living from it. The same entrepreneur may then encounter additional paperwork and staffing requirements when considering international employees.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is pursuing strategies to help global startup personnel settle in Korea for the longer term. Its K-Startup Grand Challenge, launched in 2016, attracts overseas startups with support that includes visa assistance, company registration and office space.

The ministry plans a dedicated student track within that programme to address the demands of balancing academic work with startup activities. The proposed support would cover discovery, settlement and growth, addressing language, cultural and administrative difficulties while drawing on Korea's technological capacity and access to markets.

Universities and Local Governments Are Being Asked to Connect the Gaps

The Ministry of Education acknowledges the gap between attracting international students and retaining them after graduation. It says it is expanding Korean language support and linking government funding for local municipalities to their success in attracting and integrating foreign talent.

The Regional Innovation System and Education initiative (RISE) is a central part of that approach. It transfers authority over university funding support to local governments to encourage local innovation. In practical terms, local authorities gain a greater role in connecting universities with the needs of their surrounding communities and employers.

The ministry has identified "lack of information" as a primary employment barrier. Government surveys found that international students considered missing job information their greatest difficulty in finding work, while companies struggled to obtain information about potential international candidates.

The ministries have collaborated on the K-Work platform to match international graduates with vacancies at Korean companies online and in multiple languages. It addresses a problem that affects both sides: students cannot easily identify suitable employers, and employers cannot easily find the students they might hire.

Jeesuk Kang, a higher education expert in Korea and director of academic relations at ETS, suggested that universities take a more active role in introducing students to companies. His proposal is a "talent book" featuring the top 10% to 20% of international students seeking employment.

Kang's proposed publication would include grade point averages, extracurricular activities and language certifications. Those details would give employers a concise way to identify candidates whose education and language abilities suit a vacancy.

Language classes, job matching and candidate profiles address different points in the same journey. They can help students prepare and become visible to employers, while the visa paperwork, recruitment tests and duties assigned after hiring remain separate issues requiring attention.

A Pending Visa Proposal and Students' Calls for Change

An amendment to the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers has been pending since late 2024. It would allow international students to apply for the E-9 visa, which is typically used for workers in jobs requiring low to medium skill levels. The proposal offers a different possible route from the E-7 categories used for specially designated activities.

Lee Myung-ro, head of the Small Business Labor Policy Division at KBIZ, argued that opening the E-9 route could help small and medium enterprises address labour shortages. He connected students' Korean proficiency with productivity and workplace safety:

Foreign students fluent in Korean could be deployed to SMEs, improving productivity and preventing industrial accidents through better communication,

The proposal remains pending as of January 8, 2026. No date is given for a decision on the amendment or for the planned student track within the K-Startup Grand Challenge.

Hugo Adam said SNU's international student association raised visa difficulties and recruitment exams requiring extensive Korean proficiency with ministry officials in early 2025. He described their response and his assessment of the progress:

They said, 'yeah we are aware of it and we'll try to work on it,' but I don't see any improvement for now at least,

The main dates show how the effort to attract students has developed alongside unresolved employment problems:

• 2016: The K-Startup Grand Challenge launched to attract overseas startups.
• 2018: About 1,700 international graduates found work in Korea, with an employment rate of 9.6%.
• 2024: International graduate employment reached nearly 5,000, while the rate stood at approximately 13.8%.
• Late 2024: The proposed amendment allowing international students to apply for E-9 visas was pending.
• Early 2025: SNU student representatives discussed visa problems and Korean recruitment exams with ministry officials.
• January 8, 2026: Graduates continued to describe barriers across recruitment, immigration and working life.
• 2027: The Study Korea 300K project aims to attract 300,000 international students.
• 2040: South Korea faces a projected labour shortage of 7.4 million workers.

South Korea has attracted a record number of international students through the reputation of its universities and the global popularity of its culture. The experiences of Luong, Rosa Haque and other graduates show that keeping those students requires a connection between education and actual career opportunities. A job search must lead to an employer prepared to hire, a workable visa route and responsibilities that use the graduate's skills.

The Bottom Line

• International graduate employment rose from 1,700 in 2018 to nearly 5,000 in 2024, but the employment rate increased only from 9.6% to approximately 13.8%.
• South Korea aims to attract 300,000 international students by 2027, while surveys indicate that 60% to 90% want to stay for work.
• Korean recruitment tests, language requirements and limited openings for junior foreign candidates restrict access to employment.
• E-7 visa rules involve roughly 90 job codes and 105 pages of guidance within a document of 450 pages available only in Korean.
• A KBIZ survey of 805 international students found that 66.7% had difficulty obtaining the E-7 visa.
• Some graduates describe assignments unrelated to their degrees, difficulties with workplace hierarchy and doubts about their ability to join teams.
• Government responses include Korean language support, RISE, K-Work and a planned startup programme track for students.
• The proposed E-9 visa amendment remains pending, while student entrepreneurs also face restrictions on earning income.