The number of students taking Korean studies courses worldwide has broken the 40,000 mark.
The Korea Foundation on Oct. 18 said that over the past decade, it set up and supported 2,070 courses on Korean studies at 220 universities in 55 countries, with about 40,000 students taking the courses.
The foundation also unveiled its "e-school statistics center," which was opened based on data collected over the past ten years from its "global e-school" project.
Since 2011, the e-school has provided real-time and online VOD courses in Korean studies to meet rising global demand for such programs.
In its first year, the e-school had 739 students taking 35 courses at 18 colleges in 11 countries. Last year, 8,775 students took 337 courses at 112 colleges in 39 countries, a rise of more than tenfold over the 10-year period.
A combined 604 students from 91 schools in 32 countries visited Korea over the same period through fellowships.
Among students taking Korean studies courses, the majority 77% took those in social studies, followed by those in Korean language and humanities with 10% each and those in fine arts, physical education and engineering with 3% each.
Asia had the most students (56%) taking the courses, followed by those from Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States with 16%, Central and South America 11%, Western Europe 8%, North America 7%, and Africa and the Middle East 2%.
As of this month, 16 colleges in Korea and 147 in 49 countries were participating in the project to offer 455 courses.
Institutions of higher learning in Korea that send such courses abroad include Korea, Seoul National, Sungkyunkwan and Yonsei universities and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
The University of Michigan of the U.S., Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon of Mexico and the University of Tubingen of Germany are designated hubs for their respective continents to share Korean studies courses with participating schools in each region.
