The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, together with the King Sejong Institute Foundation, designated 29 new King Sejong Institutes in 23 countries this year, the ministry said Tuesday. As a result, two decades after the institute's founding, courses on the Korean language and culture are now available at 273 locations across 89 countries worldwide.
New King Sejong Institutes opened this year in Greece, Rwanda and Sri Lanka, countries that previously had none. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece's largest comprehensive university, will run a King Sejong Institute in partnership with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. In Rwanda, International Covenant College in the capital Kigali will operate a King Sejong Institute in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Rwanda.
Sri Lanka, in particular, is a sending country under the Employment Permit System (EPS) and one of the regions with very high demand for Korean-language learning, yet it has lacked places offering systematic Korean education. The King Sejong Institute to be jointly operated by the University of Ruhuna in Matara and Dongwon Institute of Science and Technology is expected to quench locals' thirst for learning Korean.
Of the 29 King Sejong Institutes newly designated this year, 19 will be operated in partnership with 19 domestic educational institutions. Notably, nine universities, including Seoul National University, are participating in the operation of King Sejong Institutes for the first time.
The first King Sejong Institute opened in 2007 in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. From 740 students that year, enrollment has grown rapidly each year, with about 239,000 people studying Korean online and offline in 2025. This year's recruitment for new King Sejong Institutes drew applications from 102 institutions in 45 countries, the largest number in the past five years.
"While reviewing the largest-ever number of applications for King Sejong Institute designation, we could feel the intense popularity of the Korean language in the international community," a ministry official said. "We will continue to expand King Sejong Institutes to meet the high demand for Korean-language education."
