Language Program

Korean Language Program (KLP)

SNU Language Education Institute (LEI) offers Korean Language Program (KLP) for international students on a fee-paying basis. Regular Class, Evening Class and 15-week Intensive Program offer 3 – 6 credits depending on the number of lecture hours. However, these credits will be counted as extracurricular, which means they do not count towards the maximum number of credit limit of 18 credits per semester. That is, if you take KLP, along with regular courses, you can take additional credits on top of the 18 credits.

After completion of the program, KLP will issue its own transcript, with its own credits and grades stated. Upon approval of your home university, you may be able to transfer these credits towards your home program, too.

Financial Support

For exchange students who complete KLP Regular Class, Evening Class, or 15-week Intensive Program in Spring or Fall semester (but not in Summer or Winter semester), SNU OIA provides financial support to encourage learning Korean language: A full-tuition waiver for students majoring in Korean Studies and partial reimbursement of the paid tuition fee for the other students. No financial support is available for visiting students.

Korean Studies major exchange students

Upon start of the KLP session, SNU OIA will pay for the full tuition fee. These students will not have to pay for any fee.

The Rest of the exchange students

Upon completion of the KLP session in November, SNU OIA will provide partial reimbursement of the tuition fee that these students paid to KLP as a grant. The reimbursement rate will be between 30-50% of the tuition fee and the reimbursement will not be provided for students who cancel their registration before the program ends.

To process the reimbursement, students must submit a Korean bank account information. Read here to learn how to open a bank account in Korea. 

Language Education Institute

The Language Education Institute (LEI) teaches various foreign languages in addition to English, such as Japanese, Chinese, German, French, Spanish and Russian. Also, Korean language classes are offered for international students. The TEPS and SNULT exams were studied and developed here. The institute plays the same role as the affiliated language school of SNU and course registration can be done during the course registration period through the homepage. Popular lectures fill up quickly and registration can be difficult. The institute provides high quality language education at low cost without having to leave campus.

In the case of English classes, there are various lectures including conversation, writing composition, ESP and exam preparation. For conversation, the lectures are offered in multiple stages from level 1 to level 7. The writing composition class provides specialized lectures in stages starting from writing sentences to essay writing and academic paper writing. Also, certified English language exam preparation lectures are available for exams like TEPS and TOEFL, as well as specialized lectures on academic presentation and employment. There are 8 terms in a year, and each term is 4 weeks or 6 weeks long. Foreign language courses are taught in Korean and various programs are available according to skill levels.

Course registration can be done at lei.snu.ac.kr. If you wish to take English lectures that require a certain prerequisite, you can submit a certified English language exam score taken within 3 years or take a placement interview to be assigned to a class. Meanwhile, TEPS, TEPS-Speaking & Writing, i-TEPS and the second foreign language aptitude test SNULT (Japanese, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Russian) can be taken at LEI. Translations from Korean to English and revision of English documents are also provided at a charge.

Graduation Requirements for Graduate Students

To qualify for a degree, a student must earn specified credits during the enrollment term, pass the thesis submission qualification test, submit their thesis, and have it approved.

Thesis Submission Qualification Exam

Students must pass the major courses and foreign language tests to attain the qualification to submit their thesis.