▲ Jeju Global Education City

Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC) plans to host the fifth and sixth international schools in the Global Education City.

JDC announced on May 17th that it has recently signed two MOUs to attract new international schools.

Through the MOUs, JDC and the intending parties agreed to cooperate to establish international schools.

Before the signing, JDC completed the first verification of the basic plan for school establishment, including the capital soundness and excellence of the intending schools.

Two international schools that signed the agreements are reportedly famous international schools in Europe and the United States. In particular, they are known to have superior curricula and capital soundness compared to the Anglo-Chinese School in Singapore, which had been the prospective fifth international school initially.

In the future, JDC plans to conduct a second verification of the detailed plans, sign MOAs related to the school site procurement within the year, and apply for the approval of the schools’ establishment plans after consulting with the Jeju Provincial Office of Education. At the request of the intending parties, information such as the names of schools and corporations will be kept confidential until they applied for the approval of the school establishment plans.

The key is whether or not the Jeju Provincial Office of Education will approve them. On May 28, 2019, the office finally decided to decline the fifth international school’s “Application for Approval of the ACS Jeju International School Establishment Plan.” Six out of eight items, including the actual establishment and operational capacities and capital soundness of the applicant, ACS Jeju, were judged inadequate.

In the cases of European and American international schools, JDC has completed the primary verification of capital soundness and operating corporations to avoid following ACS Jeju’s footsteps, and plans to conduct secondary verification of detailed plans. Regarding the need to establish schools, JDC said there is a high demand for international schools in Jeju. The three schools operated by its subsidiary JEINS have occupancy rates exceeding 80% as of the end of last year and the current admission rates are less than 50%.

Considering that the schools have shown average occupancy growth rates of 4.5%p, in the last three years, it is expected to reach 100% between 2024 and 2025. Taking into account the time required for establishing schools, now is the right time to attract schools, according to JDC.

According to the first phase of the Jeju Global Education City Plan, seven international schools can be established and operated. Currently, four international schools are in operation: NLCS jeju, Branksome Hall Asia, KIS, and St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju.