South Korea will double the number of foreign students enrolled at its universities to 100,000 by 2010, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology has said. The plan, mainly targeting Asian and Middle Eastern students, will also double the number of scholarships available to foreign students to 3,000, ease visa restrictions and increase accommodations, according to The Korea Times.

Seoul is trying to correct a lopsided international-education system that annually sends 220,000 students to study abroad — about 30 percent of them to the United States — while accepting very few in return. Foreign students make up less than 1 percent of total enrollment at South Korean universities, the lowest proportion among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“If the number of foreign students increases to 100,000,” a ministry official, Shin Kang-tak, told The Korea Times, “we can earn 160 billion won [$157-million]. Foreigners graduating from Korean universities will also serve as a driving force in this country, which is suffering from a low birth rate.’’

In a separate announcement, President Bush, who is visiting Seoul this week, agreed with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, to set up a program allowing up to 5,000 Korean college students or recent graduates to stay in the United States for up to 18 months to study English and work as interns. —David McNeill