Twenty-two lakhs. That is roughly what a first year in Korea cost one of our recent students, everything included: tuition after scholarship, dormitory, food, flights, insurance, visa. Her cousin’s first year in Sydney cost the family more than double that, before rent shocks.
Numbers like these are why our Korea sessions have tripled. But averages hide as much as they reveal, and the real cost of studying in South Korea depends on four decisions you control: which university, which city, which housing, and how seriously you learn Korean. Let us take them in order, with actual figures.
One caveat before any number: everything here is as of early 2026, and Korean universities revise fees and scholarship bands every year. Treat these as planning figures and confirm the current ones for your specific programme before you sign anything or fix money with your bank.
Tuition: the sticker price is not your price
Korean private universities publish tuition of roughly ₩4–7 million per semester, engineering and sciences at the higher end, humanities and business lower. At around NPR 10 per ₩100, that reads as NPR 4–7 lakhs per semester, and parents’ faces fall.
Then we explain the part the published fee tables leave out: nearly every international student at the universities we work with receives an admission scholarship, automatically assessed from your grades and test scores, typically cutting tuition by 30–75%. A student with a strong +2 or a decent TU or KU bachelor’s transcript routinely pays half the sticker price, sometimes far less. At our partner institutions, Sejong University in Seoul and Woosong University with its SolBridge business school in Daejeon, these scholarships are standard practice, not a lottery.
So a realistic tuition line, after scholarship, often lands between ₩1.5 and 3.5 million per semester. Many universities also renew the scholarship each semester if you hold a required GPA, which quietly becomes the most expensive party you ever skip: lose the GPA, lose the discount.
Housing: dormitory first, goshiwon second
University dormitories are the default for first-year internationals and usually the right call: typically ₩1–1.8 million per semester for a shared room outside Seoul, more in Seoul, often with a meal plan option. Cheap, safe, five minutes from class, and full of other internationals, which matters more than students expect in month one.
The alternative Nepali students discover by year two is the goshiwon: a tiny private room, often with meals of rice and kimchi included, renting month to month with no key money deposit. Expect around ₩300,000–600,000 per month depending on city and size. “Tiny” is not a figure of speech, some are barely larger than the bed, but for a student saving aggressively, a Daejeon goshiwon at ₩350,000 with free rice is a legitimate strategy.
What to avoid in year one: regular Korean apartments. They demand jeonse or wolse deposits running into millions of won, which is exactly the money your family fixed for the visa file. Leave apartments for later, when you understand the system.
Seoul versus Daejeon and Busan
Same country, different bills. Seoul is where Sejong University sits, and Seoul carries a premium: housing 30–50% above regional cities, and everything from coffee to transport slightly heavier. In exchange you get the deepest job market, the biggest Nepali community, and the widest part-time work options.
Daejeon, home of Woosong and SolBridge, and Busan run noticeably cheaper. A student from Kavre currently at SolBridge tracks every rupee for his father, a habit we wish more students had, and his full monthly living cost in Daejeon, goshiwon, food beyond the free rice, transport, phone, comes to about ₩650,000. His friend at a Seoul university spends closer to ₩1 million for the same life.
Over a four-year degree, the Seoul premium compounds; the city decision alone can shift the total cost of studying in South Korea by several lakhs. Our honest advice: choose the programme first, city second. A strong programme in Daejeon beats a mediocre one in Seoul at any price.
A realistic first-year budget, mid-range, outside Seoul:
- Tuition after a mid-band scholarship: ₩3–7 million for the year
- Dormitory: ₩2–3.5 million for the year
- Food, transport, phone, books: ₩4–6 million for the year
- One-time costs: flight from Kathmandu, insurance, visa, initial setup: roughly NPR 2–3 lakhs
Total: commonly NPR 15–25 lakhs for year one, before any part-time income. Year two usually costs less: no setup costs, and by then you are earning.
Part-time work: real money, with conditions
After your first semester, you can apply for a work permit allowing up to around 25 hours per week during term. Korean minimum wage is above ₩10,000 per hour as of early 2026. Work 20 hours a week at minimum wage and you gross around ₩800,000-plus a month, enough to cover most living costs outside Seoul.
Three conditions, and we are blunt about them in every counselling session. You need the permit; working without it risks your visa, and Korea enforces this. You need passable Korean, because cafes and restaurants hire students who can serve customers, which is why we push TOPIK basics before departure. And your attendance and grades come first, because the scholarship renewal depends on GPA, and losing a 50% scholarship to earn minimum wage is the worst trade in this entire article.
Families who know Korea through EPS relatives sometimes assume student work resembles EPS factory work. It does not, different visa, different rules, different hours, and treating a D-2 like a work visa is the fastest way to lose it. The student earns pocket money and experience; the family still funds the education. Plan finances on that assumption and let any extra be a bonus. And after graduation, the D-10 job-seeker visa opens the door to actual full-time employment, which is where the real return on all this begins.
For current fee tables and scholarship bands at our partner universities, see our South Korea study page.
Before you decide anything expensive
Here is what we suggest before your family fixes a single rupee. Sit with us for an hour, free, and build your actual budget: your grades run against current scholarship bands, your city and housing choices priced, your bank file planned so the visa financials match the real plan. Guesswork is expensive. This hour is not.
Start Education has done this since 2018, from Putalisadak, Butwal, Banepa, and Ghorahi, with more than 4,000 students placed and direct lines to Sejong and Woosong admissions. Book your free counselling session or call +977 01-4012658. Bring a parent and a recent bank statement, and we will turn the cost of studying in South Korea from a worry into a written plan before you leave the office.