South Korea to overhaul TOPIK with AI, home testing and tougher cheating penalties

South Korea's Test of Proficiency in Korean, known as TOPIK, is set for a sweeping overhaul. The government plans to introduce an AI-powered question generation and grading system and phase in a home-based testing option starting at lower proficiency levels, with a total budget of 23.5 billion won ($17.3 million).

The Ministry of Education and the National Institute for International Education announced the reform plan Tuesday, along with a schedule for administering TOPIK in 2027. First introduced in 1997, TOPIK is a state-certified Korean language exam used for university admission, visa applications and employment in South Korea and abroad. Last year, 566,665 people from 89 countries registered for the test. The exam currently operates in three formats: paper-based testing, internet-based testing and a separate speaking assessment.

The ministry has set a target of 1 million applicants by 2030 and plans to reform both the exam's assessment framework and its administration. A key priority is strengthening the test's ability to measure real-world Korean communication skills. The current framework, established in 2014, has accumulated a large bank of past questions and standardized test-taking strategies, limiting its effectiveness as a genuine measure of communicative ability.

The ministry will form a TOPIK reform committee in the second half of this year, drawing on experts in Korean language education, educational assessment and AI. A detailed reform proposal is due in June next year. The plan calls for a pilot run in 2028, with the new system taking effect from 2029.

Under the revamped system, AI will assist in writing questions and grading responses. The ministry plans to build a system that learns from question banks and level-specific vocabulary and grammar data to generate items, then analyzes their similarity to past questions and assesses difficulty. For writing and speaking sections, AI will evaluate answers across categories such as grammar, vocabulary and logical development to produce itemized scores. All AI-generated questions and grading results will be reviewed by human experts.

Home-based testing will be introduced from 2029, starting with lower proficiency levels not directly tied to administrative procedures such as visa applications or residency permits. Test-takers will sit the exam on their personal computers at home, with anti-cheating technology including facial recognition and eye-tracking applied. The system will undergo verification before any broader rollout.

Penalties for cheating will also be tightened. The ministry is pursuing legislative changes that would suspend test eligibility for up to five years for offenses including proxy test-taking, leaking exam materials and forging identification. It also plans to establish legal grounds for canceling university admissions or degrees obtained using fraudulent scores, as well as recovering any scholarships disbursed. A ministry official said the government is currently working through the legislative process to implement the stricter penalties.

Radio-frequency detectors deployed at domestic test sites this year will be extended to overseas venues next year. Accepted identification will be limited to physical passports and alien registration cards; mobile ID will not be recognized. To prevent time-zone-based leaks, different versions of the exam will be used across countries depending on their test date and local time.

The ministry will also ease requirements for test venues to expand access. Domestic sites, which have largely been limited to universities, will be opened to high schools and other institutions. Group testing will be supported at schools with large numbers of students from immigrant backgrounds and at workplaces employing many foreign workers.

The ministry said strict entry control and space-separation requirements had made it difficult to bring more institutions on board. Overseas, new test sites will be allowed to operate even with fewer than 10 registered applicants in their early stages, and additional administering institutions will be designated in cities with high demand.

Meanwhile, TOPIK will be administered 15 times next year — six paper-based sessions, six internet-based sessions and three speaking assessments — the same number as this year. The ministry plans to increase the number of test sites and their combined seating capacity.