Of the foreign students in Chungbuk National University(CBNU), there are 631 undergraduates and 240 language course students. The total number of foreign students is 871. They are comprised of 29 nationalities; most are from China(81%), Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Vietnam, among others. Foreign students are too lonely and have a lack of Korean ability to adapt to the Korean culture and to study in Korea alone. That’s why CBNU had programs to help foreign students.
  There were programs to help foreign students; the three most common programs were ‘I love Korean’, ‘TOPIK Focus Course’ and ‘Buddy Program’. ‘I love Korean’ helped foreign students who had poor grades not to drop out by learning basic Korean ability and was provided for free until last year. According to International Affairs, ‘I love Korean’ received low marks in satisfaction evaluation and low participation.
  There was another Korean program, ‘TOPIK Focus Course’ for foreign students. It helped foreign students  do well on TOPIK, which evaluates integrated skills in Korean. Its course was not only available to foreign students for free, but the test was also free. Furthermore, foreign students who did well on the topic examination could get a TOPIK scholarship. The ‘TOPIK Focus Course’ received high marks in satisfaction evaluation because foreign students applied for the course voluntarily.
  Also, ‘Buddy Program’ was provided last year to help students adopt to university life, to understand Korean culture and to perform mutual exchanges between the Korean students and foreign students. However, there were problems with the one-on-one talk, which was selected randomly due to the differences in characters.
  Meanwhile, CBT conducted a survey of 80 foreign students. The survey showed that just 16 percent of foreign students knew about the programs to help foreign students. Therefore, International Affairs needs to give information to foreign students about the programs.
  However, making programs for foreign students became harder this year. From this year, the free programs are closed, and only fee-charging programs remain. From 2008 to 2013, International Affairs had opened free Korean courses using financial support from the CBNU administration. However, CBNU couldn’t receive financial support from the government because of a changed policy. As a result of it, International Affairs also couldn’t receive financial support from the CBNU administration. An officer of International Affairs said, “After being assigned our budget by the administration, we can establish plans for foreign students. However, we are not being financially supported by the administration, so now we can’t support the foreign students. Later this year, the Korean course will be open under a tight school budget.” The Korean course needs to promote high satisfaction and active participation of foreign students.

By Hong Seong-joo

sj35@cbnu.ac.kr