Busan's 8 Universities to Host 'Central Asia International Student Recruitment Fair' from 21st to 27th
Busan Global City Foundation and Almaty Korean Education Center Sign Expanded Cooperation MOU
Busan Metropolitan City, together with the Busan Global City Foundation (CEO Jeon Yongwoo) and eight universities in the Busan area, held the ‘Busan International Student Recruitment Fair’ in Almaty, Kazakhstan, as well as Tashkent and Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from the 21st to the 27th.
This is the result of the ‘Eurasia City Diplomacy Delegation’, a civilian diplomatic group that departed from Busan on the 20th, traveling through Central Asia to Dubai.
The purpose of this ‘Central Asia International Student Recruitment Fair’ was for the city, the foundation, and Busan-based universities to form a team and actively participate in the ‘Study Busan 30K Project’. The goal is to recruit outstanding students for each university and to expand future international student recruitment activities through local network connections.
The ‘Study Busan 30K Project’ is Busan’s international student recruitment and development plan, announced last March, with the vision of ‘Busan as the best city to study abroad and a global hub city’ in response to the crisis of youth population outflow and declining productive population.
This project aims to increase the number of international students from 12,000 this year to 30,000 by 2028, the proportion of students in science and engineering from 12% to 30%, and the visa conversion rate for job-seeking graduates from 22% to 40%.
The universities that participated as a team this time were Busan National University, Pukyong National University, Dong-A University, Busan University of Foreign Studies, Silla University, Youngsan University, Kyungnam College of Information and Technology, and Dong-Eui Institute of Technology.
With the cooperation of local Korean Education Centers, each university held school introduction sessions, booth consultations, and youth talk concerts.
Starting with Almaty, Kazakhstan (Korean Education Center) on the 21st, the fair was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (Korean Education Center) on the 24th, and on the 27th, a networking event for university officials from both cities was held at Silk Road International University of Tourism and Cultural Heritage in Samarkand, completing the Central Asian international student recruitment activities.
At the ‘International Student Recruitment Fair’ venues, members of the ‘2024 Eurasia City Diplomacy Delegation’ youth team operated Busan promotion booths and held Taekwondo demonstrations.
Through these activities, local students’ interest in studying in Busan was heightened, and the youth diplomacy team’s activities were actively carried out.
In particular, on the 21st, the foundation and the Almaty Korean Education Center signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in the field of education.
This agreement aims to continuously expand the recruitment of international students from Kazakhstan to Busan and to promote human exchange between the two cities.
Lee Joonseung, Deputy Mayor for Administrative Affairs of Busan, said, “Through the activities of the ‘Eurasia City Diplomacy Delegation’, the Busan Global City Foundation, which is in charge of international student support projects, and Busan’s universities have teamed up for the first time to directly recruit international students from Central Asia. We hope that by promoting the strengths of Busan’s universities and the image of ‘Busan as a great city to study’, more Central Asian students will have the opportunity to study in Busan in the future.”
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