Attendance and grades are a residence issue, not just an academic one
Under Article 19-4 of the Immigration Act (출입국관리법), the head of the school an international student attends must designate a staff member responsible for managing international students and notify the local immigration office. Article 24-8(2) of the Enforcement Decree spells out what the school must do: manage each international student's attendance records and credit completion, provide counselling needed to prevent students from dropping out of contact, and report the status of that management and counselling to immigration. Your attendance and your grades are not records that stay inside the university. They are information passed to immigration.
The reporting duty is more specific still. If a student fails to register by the registration deadline for a given semester or takes a leave of absence, or if their studies end through expulsion, discontinuation of training, or disappearance, the school must report it within 15 days. Even the counting dates are fixed: the day after the registration deadline for non-registration, the date of the leave for a leave of absence, the date of expulsion for expulsion, and the day the school learns of it in the case of disappearance. A school that breaches this duty faces an administrative fine of up to KRW 2 million (Article 100(1)2 of the Act).
There are two points where grades and attendance actually bite. When you extend your period of stay, if your previous semester's average is below a C (GPA 2.0) or your attendance is below 70%, you must submit an explanatory statement and a bank balance certificate on top of the usual documents (guidance from the international offices of Seoul National University of Science and Technology and Kyung Hee University). Part-time work is blocked even earlier. The international offices of Konkuk University and Hanyang University state the eligibility as "a student whose average grade in the immediately preceding semester is C (2.0) or above and whose attendance exceeded 70%." If your grades fall, you cannot even apply for a part-time work permit.
How many absences are allowed is set by each school. Seoul National University advises that missing more than 5 classes usually results in an F, and large lectures record attendance electronically via Bluetooth, NFC, or QR. If your attendance was recorded incorrectly, you can file a correction through the portal or the app.
The international office is the counter, and your documents carry a staff signature
That "designated staff member" is who you meet on the paperwork. Konkuk University tells students to obtain an academic advisor's signature at the department office and then a signature from the international student manager at the International Student Center; Hanyang University requires an international office staff confirmation on the part-time work confirmation form. Korea University's Global Services Center (GSC) accepts extension and part-time work applications only through the KUPID portal petition system and states that processing takes at least 5 business days. Seoul National University of Science and Technology lets students choose between a partner agency service (KRW 65,000) and applying individually (KRW 50,000). Because the route differs by school, check your own school's notices two or three months before your permit expires.
Work on campus follows different rules. Hanyang University's international office excludes on-campus teaching assistants, course assistants, library assistants and other work-scholarship positions, as well as internships and research project participation undertaken for course credit, from the part-time work permit requirement, and states that no report is needed for them. Konkuk University's guidance is the same. Keep this separate from the rule that off-campus part-time work requires a permit obtained before you start.
Buddy, mentoring and language exchange programs have fixed application windows
Korea University's GSC runs KUISA for degree-seeking undergraduates and KUBA for exchange and visiting students as separate programs. KUISA recruits Korean students as "BUD" each semester through an application and interview and pairs them with a "BUDDY," while exchange and visiting students are registered with KUBA automatically and receive an email from their buddy before the semester begins. The freshman mentoring program matches students one-to-one by major and language, and KU SLA runs small groups led by graduate student advisors in Korean, English, or Chinese. The LTE language exchange takes applications in February for spring and August for fall, and the free Korean class during the breaks takes applications in May and November.
Seoul National University has SNU Buddy for exchange students, SISA (the international students' association founded in 2007), and the Campus Mentoring Program (CMP). CMP mentees apply in February–March and June–July, mentors in December–January and June–July, and SMP for freshmen admitted through international admissions or the Korean government scholarship recruits at similar times. Announcements go out only through the school portal and school email, so if you do not check those accounts you can miss an entire semester.
Clubs operate by registration status
Seoul National University's Student Club Coalition (총동아리연합회) has its own constitution and enforcement rules, and manages clubs in two tiers: full registration and provisional registration. Recruitment is in mid-to-late August, activity review is in May–June, and clubs are divided into divisions such as academic/media, sports, music and arts, hobbies, religion, society and human rights, and volunteering. Registered clubs receive support such as club room assignment, fixed practice-room slots in the student union building (allocated in June and November), equipment purchases, and official letters for venue booking. The place to meet new members is the club fair in early March and early September. If you need proof of your activity, you request a club activity certificate through the Coalition's board. Departmental small groups sit outside this system, so both the support and the certificates differ.
Counselling and health care are already covered by what you paid
At Korea University, the mutual health aid fee paid together with tuition reimburses part of your out-of-pocket medical costs during enrolment, and students who paid the health fee additionally receive free health check-ups and influenza vaccinations at the Health Center. Those line items on your tuition bill are precisely what makes you eligible.
Counselling comes with a wait. Seoul National University's Center for Campus Life & Culture advises that the intake session takes 1–2 hours, that it takes roughly 4–8 weeks to be assigned a counsellor, and that individual counselling runs once a week for 12 sessions in total. Counselling is available in English and other languages, and for emergencies there is SNU Call (+82-2-880-8080), open 24 hours. Apply mid-semester and your assignment rolls over into the next one.
Student ID, accounts, and scholarships
Seoul National University's S-CARD combines a student ID with a financial card and is used for library entry, seat assignment and borrowing, electronic attendance, on-campus payments and post-paid transit, and it takes KRW 1,000 off a meal at some cafeterias. The integrated SNU_ID account is used across the portal, webmail, the libraries and college systems, and the university sends notices to the contact details registered on the portal. Failing to keep those details current connects directly to the disappearance reporting clause described above.
Scholarships do not look at grades alone. Korea University's undergraduate scholarships for international students require that you complete at least 12 credits in the relevant semester, have no record of academic warning or disciplinary action, and not be in an extra semester, with a GPA of 3.5 or 3.0 as the renewal requirement. Applications open in January for spring and July for fall; most awards are made automatically on academic performance, but some must be applied for directly through the portal. A single academic warning showing up in both your scholarship file and your residence screening is what makes it decisive for an international student.
This article was written in September 2026 from the international office guidance of Seoul National University, Korea University, Hanyang University, Konkuk University, Kyung Hee University, and Seoul National University of Science and Technology. The overall framework is similar, but program names, application windows, fees, and absence policies differ from school to school. Always confirm what applies to you with your own school's international office, HiKorea, and the Immigration Contact Center (1345).
Sources
- 서울대학교 국제협력본부(OGA) ISSS
- 서울대학교 총동아리연합회
- 고려대학교 Global Services Center (GSC)
- 한양대학교 국제처
- 건국대학교 국제처 외국인학생센터
- 경희대학교 국제처
- 서울과학기술대학교 국제교류처 「2026학년도 1학기 외국인 유학생 비자 연장 관련 안내」 (2026. 3. 4.)
- 국가법령정보센터 「출입국관리법」
Information on this page is current as of September 2026.