South Korea is in a “Toefl crisis,” according to the International Herald Tribune. Demand for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, a gateway for study at American colleges and universities, so outstrips the supply of testing slots that many students are forced to travel to other countries to take the test. Some pay travel agencies up to $1,000 for a “Toefl tour” that includes a cram course, registration for the test, and an airline ticket.

South Korea sends nearly 59,000 students every year to American colleges, the third-largest foreign contingent, so the need to take the test is critical. An estimated 130,000 South Koreans took the test in 2006, the newspaper reports, up from about 50,300 in 2001.

Meanwhile, the Educational Testing Service, which adminsters the test, switched from a paper-based testing system to an Internet-based one last year. As happened earlier in Europe, the net effect was a drastic reduction in availability. ETS had planned to offer only 64,000 testing slots in South Korea in 2007. But in April, the testing agency promised to create an additional 70,000 slots this year, the newspaper reports. —Beth McMurtrie