The number of foreign students enrolled in South Korea surged this year with the portion of those from China falling below 50 percent, a tally from a state-run educational body showed Sunday.

The number of foreign students registered at South Korean universities and graduate schools rose 14.8 percent from a year earlier to 142,205 as of April, according to the National Institute for International Education, which is affiliated with the education ministry. 

By country, the largest number of students came from China, which accounted for 48.2 percent of the total, down 6.9 percentage points from a year earlier, the data showed. The portion of Chinese students reached a record-high of 71 percent in 2010 and has declined since then.

The number of Vietnamese students came to 27,061 to account for 19 percent of the total, followed by Mongolia at 6,768, Japan at 3,977, and the United States at 2,746.

For non-degree courses, such as Korean language classes at universities, Vietnamese students accounted for 34.3 percent, or 19,260, of the total to surpass 29.8 percent of Chinese students. (Yonhap)