Reverse Gender Gap among International Students in South Korea

This article documents an interesting pattern in the gender composition among international students studying in South Korea. The number of international students in South Korean tertiary education has steadily increased, and the increase is much more pronounced for female students than for male students. The ratio of female students to male ones was 0.73 in 1999, surpassed 1 in 2009 and reached 1.34 as of 2022 (57% female and 43% male in 2022). This study empirically shows that this emergence and widening of the reverse gender gap among those choosing South Korea for their tertiary education can be partly explained by the stronger impact of the popularity of Korean pop culture abroad (the so-called Korean Wave) on female students compared to male students. By showing that a host country’s soft power can contribute to a reversal of traditional gender gap in education, this article enriches our understanding of international students’ destination choice for higher education and its social impact.