The education ministry announced on Monday that it will earmark 27.3 billion won (US$24.3 million) this year to promote Korean studies both at home and abroad.

As an academic discipline focusing on the study of Korea, areas of Korean studies include Korean history, culture, society and economics.

The project to promote Korean studies, launched by the ministry in 2007 with a budget of 4.5 billion won in cooperation with the Academy of Korean Studies, aims to lay the foundation for academic study of Korea by supporting major institutions and scholars in the field.

This year, the education ministry will hold its first presentations on Korean studies to draw interest from scholars. The briefing sessions will take place in six major cities in South Korea as well as overseas in such regions as Central and South America, Eastern Europe and Southeastern Asia.

The ministry also plans to designate two more foreign colleges as global strongholds for Korean studies. So far, a total of 18 prestigious colleges including Harvard University and Saint Petersburg State University of Russia have been supported by the government project.

The number of government-sponsored laboratories for Korean studies will also increase from the current 10 to 12 under the so-called "Korean Studies Globalization Lab" project, which aims to attract distinguished scholars into Korean studies and help them produce better research results.

"This year's budget for the project is 40 percent more than that of last year, which reflects growing interest in and demand for the study in Korea thanks to the Korean wave and the country's heightened status in the international arena," a ministry official said. (Yonhap News)